PollyOR Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 We have a wonderful library! But... Yesterday I was helping 11yo dd find a book in the juvenile section when I happened to see a folded piece of paper on the shelf. Suddenly it clicked in my brain that it was porn! :eek: I snatched it up before dd saw it. I turned it over to the librarian and boy did she get upset. She told me that they have had similar problems with materials being left in the children's bathrooms and have had to restrict their use. It is sad (or should I say sick) that people enjoy destroying the innocence of our children. <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeghanL Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 So sorry that happened, but I'm glad you were able to find it and take it off the shelf before your kids saw it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RanchGirl Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 what the what?? This is an ongoing problem they have? That is just stunning. I'm so glad you saw it before your dd or another child did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahW Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Ugh. Sounds like there might be a pedophile around. The library should ask the police to come in a couple times a day and just walk around the children's section. Even if if they never catch the person doing it, that should scare them off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeeterbug Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Wow. That's horrid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1pageatatime Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 :cursing: Doesn't surprise me one bit. P@rn is accessible with library computers. Regularly, in our libraries, p*rnographic images are left in the printers or copy machine. I'm so glad you found that before your dc. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trulycrabby Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Wow, thank you for the warning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PollyOR Posted June 7, 2013 Author Share Posted June 7, 2013 After I came home and told DH, he pulled a newspaper out of a box that the shipper had used to cushion his purchase (electronics). Yep, pornographic images. <sigh> Today we witnessed a guy steal a watermelon from in front of the grocery store. I'm beginning to think that I have been very sheltered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 That is utterly sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samiam Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 I've not thought libraries were a safe place for years. In a previous city we lived in, a library, in the nicer side of town, had a pedophile who was hanging out in the men's bathroom and took pics of children as they used the stall next to him...stuck the phone under the stall wall....got caught...but who knows how many times he did that before he got caught. That was when it dawned on me that libraries were NOT safe havens! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksr5377 Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 We had issues at some of the libraries in our city as well with someone in the bathrooms flashing children. Our libraries are wonderful and offer lots of after-school homework assistance. However, what that generally means is that there are a lot of children there without parents during those hours. It seems a lot of people here use the homework program as a free latch-key of sorts. I think it just makes the perfect situation for something bad to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Oh, that's awful! It boggles my mind that we have to worry about something like that. So glad you found it before DD (and hopefully any other kids) saw it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 We had issues at some of the libraries in our city as well with someone in the bathrooms flashing children. Our libraries are wonderful and offer lots of after-school homework assistance. However, what that generally means is that there are a lot of children there without parents during those hours. It seems a lot of people here use the homework program as a free latch-key of sorts. I think it just makes the perfect situation for something bad to happen. Are they allowed to leave their children in the library unsupervised? If someone did that here the library staff would probably call the police. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmead Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Weird. I have never seen porn in any library I've been to. People like to leave things on library shelves for other people to stumble upon. It's like the lowest-risk possible form of flashing. Religious tracts are also fairly common: I think the daydream is that someone will be looking for a book on elephants or something and "Bam!" discover religion. That is a lot more innocuous, but both situations occur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfknitter.# Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I think many of you would be surprised by stories I've witnessed during my years as a librarian. Even in the "best" communities, flashing was common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 To be honest I find it hard to imagine having a porn or flashing problem in our library but I have been to some where it wouldn't seem so far fetched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 A friend of mine worked in the neighboring town's library system and flashing was a big problem at every branch. There were also men who would bring up porn on the computers and then start taking care of business, right there at the table. They constantly call the cops to have people hauled out. Our local library has the children's collection in its own room. I like it because the shelves in there are all kid-height and the librarian desk is positioned to see every part of the room. Anyone walking in has to come through a wide open space in front of their desk before getting to the shelves. Once they're in the aisles, they'd have to crouch down to their knees in order to be hidden from sight. Those ladies watch like hawks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Just wanted to give a heads up about book stores as well. Twice we have had to alert staff to men that were following our daughters around. We found out afterward that apparently it is not that unusual for predators to pick bookstores as hangouts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraKay28 Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 My husband just called me a couple of minutes ago to say he saw in the paper that 2 men were caught dealing heroin in our library!! We live in a small town, less than 5K, and my children walk to the library several times a week by themselves. I am sick that this is happening! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PollyOR Posted June 8, 2013 Author Share Posted June 8, 2013 There were also men who would bring up porn on the computers and then start taking care of business, right there at the table. They constantly call the cops to have people hauled out. :svengo: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterflymommy Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 This is so sad! Why can't libraries block porn? At least libraries that have a children's section on premises? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 The library where we used to live originally had their computers right outside of the children's library. Fortunately there was another way to get to the children's section. They moved it eventually to a far corner out of the main traffic stream. Common problem. The bathrooms were a problem there as well. This was a nice suburb! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Okay, maybe now I will find it less irritating that the one big branch we go to has the children's room downstairs. (I find it irritating because the hold shelf is upstairs, by the main entrance, as well as next to the quiet computer areas and adult books. And there's often a line for the checkout desk, so it's rather a pain when I'm trying to check out books, and the kids have nothing to do and want to go downstairs, but if they do, we get fussed at for them being unattended.) If you're in the children's room without a child, the librarians will know and would probably become suspicious. In addition, the computers down there are restricted to children only (which is sometimes a pain for me because sometimes I'd like to check my email or something while the kids are playing/looking for books, but I understand the reason for the policy and would rather it be that way than not). One more reason to be grateful for our tiny library branches where it's hard to hide and for the larger branches that have individual use bathrooms in the children's rooms. Ugh, people calling up p*rn and taking care of business at the tables, and dealing heroin in the library?!? What is this world coming to??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Laurie Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 A few weeks ago dh was with us when we stopped by the library and kept asking me where dd was and being paranoid about counting heads. Poor guy, I laughed at him and told him she was right over there in a chair reading, and he reminded me of when he worked in a library while going to college, and they had an issue with a guy flashing little kids. Dh tends to be a bit of a helicopter parent so I still kind of shrugged it off as a rare incident, but after reading this, I think I need to give his concern more credit and need to apologize to him. I'm so sad to read all of this, because I did consider our library a safe haven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Michelle* Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-act-violence/201203/your-local-library-can-be-dangerous-place Some interesting thoughts: So it appears we are at a crossroads: much of the younger, non-book-reading public feels that libraries are a waste of space, money, and time. Their usual refrain is, "Everything you'd ever want to read, research, or find is already on the Internet. Why should you have to drive over to a building, when what you need is already on-line?" Many frontline, patron-contact library staffers don't like the Internet, not because they see it as "competition," they just don't like having to be part of the Internet Access Police Department, watching entitled patrons literally fight over screen time. So what are the solutions? Perhaps it starts with a complete redesign of the concept. Maybe we need to turn some branches into "books and periodicals-only" locations, with no Internet access and better enforcement of the rules of conduct. Maybe we could convert some branches into Internet cafes, with no books, but lots of screens to sit at and tech-trained staff to help (and better enforcement of the rules of conduct). Maybe some branches could be converted to children-only libraries, where unaccompanied kids have to be signed in and out by a parent, lone adult males are not allowed inside, and the Internet content is filtered. (A favorite behavior of those patrons who like to pull up Internet porn is to make sure passing children can see it too.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 A few weeks ago dh was with us when we stopped by the library and kept asking me where dd was and being paranoid about counting heads. Poor guy, I laughed at him and told him she was right over there in a chair reading, and he reminded me of when he worked in a library while going to college, and they had an issue with a guy flashing little kids. Dh tends to be a bit of a helicopter parent so I still kind of shrugged it off as a rare incident, but after reading this, I think I need to give his concern more credit and need to apologize to him. I'm so sad to read all of this, because I did consider our library a safe haven. I'm with you on this! This thread will probably change the way I let my children loose at the library. (We're in a very small town with librarians who know us from seeing us so often -- my 5 yr old often wanders around the entire place. Um...not anymore!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellieK Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 I live in a small town and I do not even take my children to the library with me. My oldest is 9 and I have started teaching her how to use a library so we have made special trips that were just us. Too many weird things happened in public anymore. Two years ago there was a news report that stopped me from taking my children to most places unless I have my husband with me to help keep track of them. At a large, popular thrift store where people always felt safe letting their children run free (not wild) a teenage boy heard screaming in the men's bathroom. He opened the door to see a man sodomizing a young girl, when he yelled for help the man ran off, but was tackled in the parking lot and held until the police came. The mother of the girl said she was missing from her for just a few moments and was frantically looking for her. The scumbag had watched how the mother was not too concerned about letting her wander off for a moment or two and when he had a chance he grabbed her and took her to the bathroom. This was in the middle of the day on a weekday. I leave my children at home as much as possible anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countrygal Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Do they have camera's installed? Ours does by the movies because of stealing problems. You could ask them to invest in some, maybe that would scare them away or catch them. Creeps hang out where kids are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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