It's All Up To Me, I Guess.
Nov. 2nd, 2018 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptSevral things make a frustrated library dragon. So, a large amount of associated hot takes and likely complaints. Let's start with the obvious:
And, again, for those in the back who have not internalized this reality:
Which should go without saying, but ugh, there's so much going around them, because they're teenagers and teenagers tend to draw attention to themselves by being themselves. The sort of thing where a group of young (Black) men heading to the bathroom is suspicious in ways that groups of young women isn't. But also the part where my library is an acoustic disaster that makes small groups of people having a normal conversation sound loud, and a big group of people having a normal conversation sound incredibly loud. And that the teen section is adjacent to what is supposed to be the quiet reading lounge. And that the library is situated in a city that has no place for teens to hang out, outside of school and home, that doesn't cost money. Except the library. And that removed the tables and chairs from the place that was supposed to be a hangout and social space because, heaven forfend, teenagers were using it to be social and hang out. And that wants to block off entry to that space in the morning from the coffee shop, before they want to open the space, because there are people who are experiencing homelessness who want to use that space as a warm place to be before the library opens. Because it looks bad for the city. So, to put it mildly, the city believes teenagers aren't welcome until they become taxpaying adults. Given the prevalence of gated communities in the city, this, I suppose, isn't surprising, but it really is a pain that there aren't more places for our teens to go.
It also doesn't help when, despite this reality, you have people that you work with whose attitudes mirror the city around them. I suppose it's too much to expect, but I think it's reasonable to say that while youth services and adult services are indicators of specialization and expertise, that all of the staff are involved in making sure all of our audiences have a good experience at the library. This is not a shared idea. A suggestion that we could use our meeting room space as overflow on days where the teens are released early from school, and possibly put a game system in there to have them able to do something while they're there (as opposed to there being a giant amount of teens in the teen area all at once) was meet with "I'm not taking a shift babysitting them in there" from one of my adult services coworkers, and an accusation of how it "wasn't fair" to create programs and then leave them for others to do, and that it would be taking away valuable meeting room space from members of the community that might want to use it. Which, y'know, I'm willing to do the thing, but right now, I'm not there during early release because of things that were decided above my pay grade. Yet, I would have thought the idea of trying to keep what they already identify as a problem more contained and possibly better handled would be a thing they'd like to participate in, but no, apparently, if it's a thing that I'm proposing as a possible solution, I'm signing up to do it. Myself. Because nobody else wants to. And isn't providing any suggestions of their own.
It doesn't help things at all that it's a primarily white staff and our regulars are primarily teens of color. Who have, y'know, taken to filming interactions with staff. And that have asked if we have cameras, so that we can pinpoint the people who are misbehaving, rather than working in broad brush strokes. Perhaps a useful solution to the issue might be to put a staff person in the teen area? But that would mean having to be there in the area, and possibly even get to know everyone and see who's there. And to spare staff for what seems to be nothing more than babysitting exercises, in the hope that it might prevent further problems and bad interactions.
Admittedly, all of that is subject to the rules of behavior, so no, there's no acceptance of people shouting the F-word or behaving like terrible people toward each other, but there should also be as much comes-down-hard on people who believe they have the right to do something about our teenagers because the staff isn't doing things to their satisfaction. But, it generally seems to be the tack that if a user's getting involved, it's because we were too lenient with the teenagers, and I don't really believe that's been the case. (The teens don't help sometimes, because they tend to respond to a threat like it's a threat and escalate.)
Perhaps I'm miscalibrated in terms of what an appropriate response is, and, based on how everyone else on staff behaves, there's the probability that I'm too lenient with what goes on with regard to teenage behavior. I would just like some help, or perhaps even just a staff that thinks that working will all of our audiences is something all of our staff wants to do.
But if that's a thing that I want to do, or see happen, I guess I have to do it. Myself.
- The library will never be silent.
And, again, for those in the back who have not internalized this reality:
- THE LIBRARY WILL NEVER BE SILENT!
- Socialization is a valid use of the library.
- Teenagers are valid users of the library.
Also:
When I get complaints about how the noise is too much in the library, there's always a part of me that wants to yell that back at them repeatedly until they give up or accept their new reality. With a ballot issue nearby, there are people who also say that they support us, but they might change their mind because of things like "it's a playground for teenagers," "the library isn't a place for hanging out," or "the library should be quiet." The thing I want to tell those people is "Get stuffed. The library is for everyone, and that includes people who you think don't belong here or are using it for purposes you don't like." What I want to believe is that we don't need those votes. But we probably do. And besides, I'm not allowed to tell our users what my opinions are of them like that. It's bad customer service.
Which should go without saying, but ugh, there's so much going around them, because they're teenagers and teenagers tend to draw attention to themselves by being themselves. The sort of thing where a group of young (Black) men heading to the bathroom is suspicious in ways that groups of young women isn't. But also the part where my library is an acoustic disaster that makes small groups of people having a normal conversation sound loud, and a big group of people having a normal conversation sound incredibly loud. And that the teen section is adjacent to what is supposed to be the quiet reading lounge. And that the library is situated in a city that has no place for teens to hang out, outside of school and home, that doesn't cost money. Except the library. And that removed the tables and chairs from the place that was supposed to be a hangout and social space because, heaven forfend, teenagers were using it to be social and hang out. And that wants to block off entry to that space in the morning from the coffee shop, before they want to open the space, because there are people who are experiencing homelessness who want to use that space as a warm place to be before the library opens. Because it looks bad for the city. So, to put it mildly, the city believes teenagers aren't welcome until they become taxpaying adults. Given the prevalence of gated communities in the city, this, I suppose, isn't surprising, but it really is a pain that there aren't more places for our teens to go.
It also doesn't help when, despite this reality, you have people that you work with whose attitudes mirror the city around them. I suppose it's too much to expect, but I think it's reasonable to say that while youth services and adult services are indicators of specialization and expertise, that all of the staff are involved in making sure all of our audiences have a good experience at the library. This is not a shared idea. A suggestion that we could use our meeting room space as overflow on days where the teens are released early from school, and possibly put a game system in there to have them able to do something while they're there (as opposed to there being a giant amount of teens in the teen area all at once) was meet with "I'm not taking a shift babysitting them in there" from one of my adult services coworkers, and an accusation of how it "wasn't fair" to create programs and then leave them for others to do, and that it would be taking away valuable meeting room space from members of the community that might want to use it. Which, y'know, I'm willing to do the thing, but right now, I'm not there during early release because of things that were decided above my pay grade. Yet, I would have thought the idea of trying to keep what they already identify as a problem more contained and possibly better handled would be a thing they'd like to participate in, but no, apparently, if it's a thing that I'm proposing as a possible solution, I'm signing up to do it. Myself. Because nobody else wants to. And isn't providing any suggestions of their own.
It doesn't help things at all that it's a primarily white staff and our regulars are primarily teens of color. Who have, y'know, taken to filming interactions with staff. And that have asked if we have cameras, so that we can pinpoint the people who are misbehaving, rather than working in broad brush strokes. Perhaps a useful solution to the issue might be to put a staff person in the teen area? But that would mean having to be there in the area, and possibly even get to know everyone and see who's there. And to spare staff for what seems to be nothing more than babysitting exercises, in the hope that it might prevent further problems and bad interactions.
Admittedly, all of that is subject to the rules of behavior, so no, there's no acceptance of people shouting the F-word or behaving like terrible people toward each other, but there should also be as much comes-down-hard on people who believe they have the right to do something about our teenagers because the staff isn't doing things to their satisfaction. But, it generally seems to be the tack that if a user's getting involved, it's because we were too lenient with the teenagers, and I don't really believe that's been the case. (The teens don't help sometimes, because they tend to respond to a threat like it's a threat and escalate.)
Perhaps I'm miscalibrated in terms of what an appropriate response is, and, based on how everyone else on staff behaves, there's the probability that I'm too lenient with what goes on with regard to teenage behavior. I would just like some help, or perhaps even just a staff that thinks that working will all of our audiences is something all of our staff wants to do.
But if that's a thing that I want to do, or see happen, I guess I have to do it. Myself.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-03 01:27 pm (UTC)