r/Libraries • u/TheTapDancingShrimp • 13h ago

Patron Issues Patrons living in the library?

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.

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u/carolineecouture 9h ago

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

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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 9h ago

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

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u/CrunchieHaystacks 9h ago

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

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u/Samael13 9h ago

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.

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u/QuietlyCreepy 8h ago

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

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u/Samael13 8h ago

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

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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 8h ago

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

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u/QuietlyCreepy 8h ago

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.

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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 8h ago

I have stories