How do you get kicked out of the library?

I was having a conversation a friend and the subject of public library access came up. Specifically, having access revoked. In my library, like most I know, access to library services is available to the whole community, not only those who have a library card. Patrons can use the computers with guest passes. They can read or use wifi, and of course consult the information desk in person or by phone.

A library card does provide a wider range of services such as materials check-out, longer time on public computers, subscription database access, and the ability to request holds on materials. So we heartily encourage patrons to get library cards. But it is not a club pass, and we do not check cards at the door. And when a patron's access is suspended or revoked, the only difference having a library card makes is how easy it is to contact and inform the patron. All patrons are held to the same public use policy.

So when my friend asked, "What do you have to do to get kicked out of the library?" I responded. "Oh so many things." But those things all have to do with lack of respect for others and for the library.

Basically, in order to have such wide ranging access suspended or revoked, you have to make yourself a public danger or nuisance. (Again, I am only making observations of my library.) Most offenses, like falling asleep in the library or being entirely too loud for extended periods of time, etc,will only get you warned or asked to leave for the day. If you are repeatedly or consistently asked to leave, the higher ups in the security staff and library administration may consider suspending your access. However, this is on a case by case basis, and they always try to be fair.

So my way of seeing it is, if you wouldn't do it in a grocery store, don't do it in the library.

The only people I have ever heard of having access revoked, either for a set period or permanently, are people who break the law while in the library. Patrons who get caught committing illegal acts such as harassment, assault, destruction of public property, stealing, or viewing illegal material on the computers, can expect to not visit the library for a long time to come. I personally find this policy to be more than fair.

Why am I going on this rant , you may ask? Because there are some very gray areas. For instance, what constitutes harassment? We have had a patron of late who calls every branch of the library nearly every day, sometimes multiple calls within a day, sometimes to multiple floors in the same branch. He asks for library staff to do over-the-phone job searches for him with very specific parameters. Often times the parameters he sets either return very few results or are simply not reasonable, often both. When he gets an answer he does not like, he asks to be transferred to another staff member or abruptly hangs up and calls back to get someone else. This has been happening for weeks.

Now, to this man's credit, he may be curt but he is never abusive. Aye, but there's the rub. He is a patron with questions, and as such all staff that he has contacted have tried to help him to the best of our ability. But he can eat up 45 minutes at a time with one staff member, get frustrated, hang up, then call back and do the same with another. So when is enough enough?

This is the question that is being kicked around at work lately. I can see it in a number of ways. He has never been abusive and has never broken any rules that I know of, but he can be extremely annoying. On the other hand, since he just calls in, he is only annoying library staff and therefore not a public nuisance. At this point, to the chagrin of some, he has done nothing worthy of suspending his access to phone reference. And since he is primarily using phone reference, there is no physical library to "kick him out" of. So we will just have to see how this one plays out. I am interested to see how it does.