INFS 620 – Instructor Prof.

Bouthillier
Week 2 – Decision Making - The changing role of public libraries

It is now well documented that library workers across the country are being
threatened or attacked and sometimes they face worse situations. In most large
cities, the number of library incidents including threatening behaviors from users
has increased significantly over the last few years. As a public space, the library is
supposed to be open to everyone to give access to a large variety of resources, but
this mission is more and more difficult to fulfill. Last week, Carla and Vincent, were
about to close the library and they faced three homeless men who asked for
spending the night indoors as they could not find any shelters. Carla panicked and
asked Vincent to call the police to avoid confrontation. The police took a while to
show up and rapidly the situation became tense and unsafe for library staff and the
last library users who stayed to support the staff. Fortunately, when the police
arrived, the homeless men agreed to leave and the incident was over, but both
Carla and Vincent are now very nervous about doing another late-night shift. The
director, Sylvia, must find long-term solutions to ensure that both library users and
front-line staff feel safe and, more importantly, that the workers are not afraid to
work late. One solution could be to reduce opening hours, but this would certainly
generate dissatisfaction among the users, and such a measure, with no guarantee
that it would solve the situation, would need to be approved by the City Council.
What else could be done?