Supervised visits are becoming more and more frequent at our library, and with them come people that don't normally use the library, and don't know what behavior is expected. Do any of you have specific policies for supervised visits, or have hand-outs to give parents and social workers? We have discovered finger-painting and clay work, along with lots of snacks happening in our kids room - plus general mayhem and messes. We have patron behavior policies, but it would be nice to have something specific to this situation. Thanks for any help you can give! Happy Holidays! Perri Saunders, Director White Pigeon Township Library 102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399 White Pigeon, MI 49099 Phone 269.483.7409 Fax 269.483.9923 perri@monroe.lib.mi.us<mailto:perri@monroe.lib.mi.us> Brighten the corner where you are.
We have the same issue at our library! Mimi Herrington, Director Bad Axe Area District Library 200 S. Hanselman Street Bad Axe, MI 48413 989.269.8538 (Phone) 989.269.2411 (Fax) www.badaxelibrary.org From: Perri Saunders Sent: Friday, December 19, 2014 10:56 AM To: michlib-l Subject: [Michlib-l] Supervised visits policies Supervised visits are becoming more and more frequent at our library, and with them come people that don't normally use the library, and don't know what behavior is expected. Do any of you have specific policies for supervised visits, or have hand-outs to give parents and social workers? We have discovered finger-painting and clay work, along with lots of snacks happening in our kids room - plus general mayhem and messes. We have patron behavior policies, but it would be nice to have something specific to this situation. Thanks for any help you can give! Happy Holidays! Perri Saunders, Director White Pigeon Township Library 102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399 White Pigeon, MI 49099 Phone 269.483.7409 Fax 269.483.9923 perri@monroe.lib.mi.us Brighten the corner where you are. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
I'm sorry....when I read Perri's email the other day, I chuckled, so thankful we have no meeting rooms for this to occur in. On Saturday, I was working by myself at the desk, when in walked a mom with 3-4 children, later in walked an older couple, and then a lady with a notebook. When I checked the monitor for the children's room, the puppets were screaming in horror....they were being sneezed on, they were being chewed on, they were flying through the air not with the greatest of ease. The Disney tree ornament were scurrying to the top of the tree because everything with in reach was being ripped off and tossed. When all was said and done, I cleaned up the room, apologized to all the puppets and ornaments and I did let the caseworker know that visits needed to be arranged in advance so we could be sure we had proper room available for them. Someone had told them we had a whole basement available.....I think I will be watching the responses on this one. I'm sorry I chuckled. :(Joann @ Hudson From: Mimi Herrington <mherring@badaxelibrary.org> To: michlib-l <michlib-l@mcls.org> Sent: Friday, December 19, 2014 1:05 PM Subject: Re: [Michlib-l] Supervised visits policies We have the same issue at our library! Mimi Herrington, Director Bad Axe Area District Library 200 S. Hanselman Street Bad Axe, MI 48413 989.269.8538 (Phone) 989.269.2411 (Fax) www.badaxelibrary.org From: Perri Saunders Sent: Friday, December 19, 2014 10:56 AMTo: michlib-l Subject: [Michlib-l] Supervised visits policies Supervised visits are becoming more and more frequent at our library, and with them come people that don't normally use the library, and don't know what behavior is expected. Do any of you have specific policies for supervised visits, or have hand-outs to give parents and social workers? We have discovered finger-painting and clay work, along with lots of snacks happening in our kids room - plus general mayhem and messes. We have patron behavior policies, but it would be nice to have something specific to this situation. Thanks for any help you can give! Happy Holidays! Perri Saunders, DirectorWhite Pigeon Township Library102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399 White Pigeon, MI 49099Phone 269.483.7409Fax 269.483.9923perri@monroe.lib.mi.us Brighten the corner where you are. _______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l _______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
Hi Perri, Perhaps you might provide a box/bin of appropriate activity materials the families can use in the library... card games/board games, puzzles, coloring sheets/crayons, puppets, legos/duplos, and the like. If funds are an issue, we have posted up a sign asking for these types of materials, and raided our personal toy bins. We post up a couple signs saying that these materials are available for use and to ask at the desk for the bin...no card required. We also post signs that say, "Clean up and get a sticker at the desk". It's amazing how much less messy the children's play area became after the sticker "bribe". And sticker assortments come from Oriental Trading for pennies or we also use the ones that come tucked into the occasional purchased Disney or movie themed kids books and magazines. We also had our friends give us money to print up some, "I visited the library today" stickers with a pic of our mascot. What a great way to advertise your services to others who might not usually visit your facility. If snacking is an issue, do you have an area that is or could be set aside for food and drinks? We actually allow (and provide) snacks and covered drinks in our branches. That being said, we also purchased a dust buster for unfortunate occurrences. You might find your regular patrons appreciate this as well. How encouraging for your library that you can provide this opportunity for struggling families and brighten their day. Enjoy the holidays, Kelaine Mish East Grand Rapids branch Kent District Library On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Perri Saunders <perri@monroe.lib.mi.us> wrote:
Supervised visits are becoming more and more frequent at our library, and with them come people that don't normally use the library, and don't know what behavior is expected.
Do any of you have specific policies for supervised visits, or have hand-outs to give parents and social workers? We have discovered finger-painting and clay work, along with lots of snacks happening in our kids room - plus general mayhem and messes.
We have patron behavior policies, but it would be nice to have something specific to this situation.
Thanks for any help you can give!
Happy Holidays!
*Perri Saunders,* *Director* *White Pigeon Township Library* *102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399* *White Pigeon, MI 49099* *Phone 269.483.7409 <269.483.7409>* *Fax 269.483.9923 <269.483.9923>* *perri@monroe.lib.mi.us* <perri@monroe.lib.mi.us>
*Brighten the corner where you are.*
_______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
-- Galatians 5:22-6:10 (with some creative control) The harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control.....so let us never tire of doing good, for if we do not slacken our efforts we shall in due time reap our harvest. Therefore, as opportunity offers, let us work for the good of all....
Policies for this specific group of patrons seems like a bad idea. Anytime you are writing policy you have to be very careful about targeting specific people. The only differentiations I can think of that we have (and are commonly made) is children vs adults and non-profit vs for-profit entities. I can't see how are they really different from everyone else other or our expectations of them would be any different. NS On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Perri Saunders <perri@monroe.lib.mi.us> wrote:
Supervised visits are becoming more and more frequent at our library, and with them come people that don't normally use the library, and don't know what behavior is expected.
Do any of you have specific policies for supervised visits, or have hand-outs to give parents and social workers? We have discovered finger-painting and clay work, along with lots of snacks happening in our kids room - plus general mayhem and messes.
We have patron behavior policies, but it would be nice to have something specific to this situation.
Thanks for any help you can give!
Happy Holidays!
*Perri Saunders,* *Director* *White Pigeon Township Library* *102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399* *White Pigeon, MI 49099* *Phone 269.483.7409 <269.483.7409>* *Fax 269.483.9923 <269.483.9923>* *perri@monroe.lib.mi.us* <perri@monroe.lib.mi.us>
*Brighten the corner where you are.*
_______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
-- Nancy Studebaker, Director Niles District Library 620 E Main Niles, MI 49120 Phone 269 683 8545 x122 Fax 269 683 0075 Cell 269 277 0127
For those of you that were asking about guidelines for supervised visits - I've attached what we came up with. I recognize the folly in developing a policy or guideline for certain people/situations, but we all know that that's why some policies are made. I have chosen to call this a "library guideline" - a guideline for behavior of all people in the library that is shorter and easier to refer to than our patron behavior policy, but still follows the rules set there. I have posted this guideline in the foyer and on the kid's room door, and have given it to (and talked about it with) the social worker in question. It did make the supervised visit much more tolerable on Tuesday, and we hope it will improve other supervised visits as well. Thanks for your input, and I hope our "guidelines" will help other libraries too. Happy New Year! Perri Saunders, Director White Pigeon Township Library 102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399 White Pigeon, MI 49099 Phone 269.483.7409 Fax 269.483.9923 perri@monroe.lib.mi.us<mailto:perri@monroe.lib.mi.us> Brighten the corner where you are. ________________________________ From: Nancy Studebaker [director@nileslibrary.net] Sent: Monday, December 22, 2014 11:32 AM To: Perri Saunders Cc: michlib-l Subject: Re: [Michlib-l] Supervised visits policies Policies for this specific group of patrons seems like a bad idea. Anytime you are writing policy you have to be very careful about targeting specific people. The only differentiations I can think of that we have (and are commonly made) is children vs adults and non-profit vs for-profit entities. I can't see how are they really different from everyone else other or our expectations of them would be any different. NS On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Perri Saunders <perri@monroe.lib.mi.us<mailto:perri@monroe.lib.mi.us>> wrote: Supervised visits are becoming more and more frequent at our library, and with them come people that don't normally use the library, and don't know what behavior is expected. Do any of you have specific policies for supervised visits, or have hand-outs to give parents and social workers? We have discovered finger-painting and clay work, along with lots of snacks happening in our kids room - plus general mayhem and messes. We have patron behavior policies, but it would be nice to have something specific to this situation. Thanks for any help you can give! Happy Holidays! Perri Saunders, Director White Pigeon Township Library 102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399 White Pigeon, MI 49099 Phone 269.483.7409<tel:269.483.7409> Fax 269.483.9923<tel:269.483.9923> perri@monroe.lib.mi.us<mailto:perri@monroe.lib.mi.us> Brighten the corner where you are. _______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org<mailto:Michlib-l@mcls.org> http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l -- Nancy Studebaker, Director Niles District Library 620 E Main Niles, MI 49120 Phone 269 683 8545 x122 Fax 269 683 0075 Cell 269 277 0127
participants (5)
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Joann Crater -
Kelaine Mish -
Mimi Herrington -
Nancy Studebaker -
Perri Saunders