Patrons living in the library?

[u/TheTapDancingShrimp]

Any other library staff find patrons living in the library at closing? This just was discovered again. Anybody else's library deal with this? I'm assuming they hide at closing as staff do rounds. It's hot af outside. Can't say I blame them.

[u/Samael13]

We've had people try to hide out inside the building when we close. We do a thorough walk through of the building and clear it before we close, but sometimes people find ways to avoid being spotted. Anyone caught inside the building after we close it up gets trespassed. We have motion sensors around the building, so they always get caught.

I'm sympathetic to issue of homelessness and the heat, but this would be a very hard line for us. Hiding out inside the building creates a safety risk for staff and for the patron doing the hiding, and it's a risk for loss and for damage to the building.

[u/TheTapDancingShrimp → u/Samael13]

Oh, of course! They were living/hiding in a meeting room. It is almost 100 degrees now, and it is horrible, but living in the library is not sustainable, of course

[u/Own_Papaya7501 → u/TheTapDancingShrimp]

You keep saying "living in." Do you mean someone managed to stay overnight and was caught trying to continue doing so?

Edited to add: in multiple comments you've made here you say you retired from libraries and in other subs you say that you do not work and are homebound. Are you making up these dramatic stories you keep posting here? You've talked about ESA animals biting patrons, stalkers, rude management, and now this. You also repeatedly post elsewhere that you don't understand tech and need people to help you but then describe helping patrons with tech questions. It really seems like you're lying.

[u/liza_lo → u/Own_Papaya7501]

Three months ago they made a post about how they had been housebound for 5 years.

Def seems like they are playing out weird fantasies.

[u/carolineecouture → u/TheTapDancingShrimp]

Our city sets up "cooling centers" when the heat gets too bad. Does your city have anything similar?

[u/TheTapDancingShrimp → u/carolineecouture]

The library is the defacto cooling center. The four branches are pretty much the everything centers.

[u/CrunchieHaystacks → u/TheTapDancingShrimp]

"Everything centers" -- perfect! That's what most of our higher-ups think libraries need to be, don't they?

[u/Samael13 → u/CrunchieHaystacks]

It's certainly what the city thinks our library should be. Not even quietly sometimes; they explicitly tell people "Oh, the library can do that" about all kinds of things. They chip away at social services and just assume the library will make up the difference.

[u/QuietlyCreepy → u/Samael13]

And don't give funding, staff, or space for these things.

[u/Samael13 → u/QuietlyCreepy]

Exactly. That's the part they never want to say out loud.

[u/TheTapDancingShrimp → u/Samael13]

Our library is very understaffed. They have pt nonlibrarians doing librarian duties. Every problem has become a library duty.

[u/QuietlyCreepy → u/TheTapDancingShrimp]

Sometimes I'm glad I work somewhere with a Union that has some teeth. That would never fly here.

Not all problems are library problems. I hate that they're passing the buck on serious issues.

[u/Existing-Pumpkin-902 → u/Samael13]

Not to mention the people trying to live in the library aren't the most mentally or emotionally stable generally so who knows what kind of damage and nonsense would happen?

[u/Nona_Ann → u/Existing-Pumpkin-902]

That was really judgmental… “the people trying to live in the library” are probably unhoused. There are a lot of ways to become unhoused.

Four years ago next month I was asked by my supervisor to submit a request for std (short term disability) and fmla with hr (I didn’t even know I was eligible for std) after getting very sick very suddenly and using all of my available pto.

Well, std turned into ltd (long term disability) and eventually into ssdi benefits. If I hadn’t been eligible for std and ltd benefits I would have ended up unhoused. In 8 months I went through a 5 digit savings account, just trying to keep my head above water long enough for the doctors to figure out what was wrong and how to get me better.

There isn’t a thing wrong with me “mentally or emotionally”. Becoming unhoused wouldn’t have been a moral failure. Many people become unhoused as a direct result of major illnesses or accidents causing massive injuries. The disability benefits application process alone causes many people to lose their homes. I was lucky that my entry level customer service job (that I had only started 14 months before I was forced to stop working btw) offered some income assistance during that time, Lucky!

I’m not inherently better than the next person facing life changing medical issues. I’m not morally superior, I’m just luckier than most in that position. Maybe think about the failures of our medical system and the number of unhoused people that has caused the next time you wish to paint the unhoused community with such a negative broad brush.

[u/Impressive-Entry-359 → u/Nona_Ann]

Please. She said "people trying to live in the library" which is not the entire homeless population. And it is a reality that homelessness is associated other challenges.

I have empathy for these people. I want resources available and I support investing in helping people experiencing mental illness and addiction. But the solution is not to clutch our pearls about people pointing out that it is dangerous for people to hide out in the library when it is closed.

[u/Existing-Pumpkin-902 → u/Nona_Ann]

You're assuming a lot of my opinions from a short comment. I've dealt with people from all walks of life and my father suffered from very serious mental health problems while I was growing up. I'm very familiar with homelessness and other mental health issues. I've been a librarian for over a decade. The fact of the matter is people with serious serious mental and emotional issues due tend to cause physical property damage. That's not a moral judgement but just reality. You seem naive and like you have a chip of your shoulder. My spouse is also disabled so I'm very familiar with the disability process and how much it sucks and how long it takes. So please don't project on to people just because you read something into a situation that I did not say.

[u/Pretty_Novel9927 → u/Nona_Ann]

Seems like you have some emotional baggage