Rowdy Teens Get Carded at Library
Controversy grows over Joliet Public Library's policy requiring teens to show IDs
By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2004
Joliet Library Director Jim Johnston says that starting in January, all teenagers entering the library after 5 p.m. unaccompanied by a parent must register and display a library card or student ID. Those without proper identification will be required to wait in a designated room while a staff member calls a parent or guardian to verify that the child has reason to be in the library, he says.
The library board approved the policy, along with neighborhood organizations, local schools, and police, to remedy an ongoing problem: hundreds of adolescents loitering in the library each day, sparking fights, shouting matches, and other disruptive behavior. Patrons have lodged an average of 70 complaints each week against rowdy kids, and recently there were 100 hours of shelf reorganization recorded in one two-week period. Last year, there were 23 serious incidents, including kids spraying graffiti and cursing at police officers outside the library. The situation has forced the library to hire an additional security guard from 5 p.m. until closing at 9 p.m., at a cost of $12,000 beyond its $20,000 security budget. While Johnston regrets having to take such a restrictive measure, he says the library must consider the needs of all of its patrons.
Genevieve Gallagher, a youth services librarian at the Orange County (VA) Public Library, says the policy is "blatant discrimination that would be unthinkable if the group in question was anyone other than teens." Brooke Helman, director of the Hinsdale (MA) Public Library, adds, that the policy "doesn't further teen services and seeks to stifle their rights as library patrons." Cynthia Richey, president of the Association of Library Service to Children, says the rule "is the most strictly worded policy I've ever seen," but acknowledges that the library has a serious problem with disruptive teens.
Johnston says the measure will be enforced from January through March 31, a period that coincides with many more teens working on long-term research projects. Early spring is also a time when teens have nowhere else to go because after-school programs, including the Boys and Girls Club, have all filled up and it's still too cold for outdoor recreation.
Richey says libraries have been coping with boisterous adolescents for decades and in this depressed economy, stressed parents have increasingly come to rely on the library for free child care.
Joliet Library has reached out to teens by providing 30 youth programs. Johnston says the majority of teens are good patrons, but the behavior of some has exceeded "all social bounds."
