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Hey
Dude, We Want Our Library Back!
NECC Professor Mark Palermo
(03/06/07)
 In the
Haverhill Library one afternoon in February, I was
looking through a bin of CD’s when a disturbance
started not ten feet away from me.
Two lines of adolescent boys squared off against each
other over some perceived or real violation of turf
jurisdiction. After about two minutes of blustering and
vague threats, the two sides withdrew, satisfied that
their territorial imperatives had been reaffirmed.
I am glad they negotiated their turf issue without
violence (this time), but I wondered about the turf issue
of my own group. The group that uses the library for
quiet study and to borrow books. You know, the group that
pays taxes for this privilege. Where is our territorial
imperative and who is affirming it?
As I looked around the library, I was dismayed to see
that the library has become a hangout. I saw perhaps 40
young people of high school age, few - if any - of whom
appeared to be reading or doing research. Nothing wrong
with being young, but being a young person with no
structure and too much time on your hands is, to
paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke, “…like giving
whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
No wonder the library is starting to feel like a minimum
security prison. If you want to use the men’s room,
for instance, you sometimes have to go to the main desk
and get a key because the door is locked. To prevent
what?
Drug dealing, violence, assaults, vandalism? One woman I
spoke with says she was browsing through the aisles of
books when she overheard one side of a cell phone
conversation where a young man was planning a murder.
My experience in the library has convinced me that now is
the time to do something about this.
The library staff is not to blame. I spend a lot of
time in libraries and they are the most friendly,
helpful, and efficient staff I have ever encountered. But
they are not trained as security guards, they have no
powers of arrest, they carry no weapons, nor should they.
It is easy to say the staff should call the police if
they have a problem. But most of the undesirable behavior
in the library is not criminal, but inappropriate or
vulgar, and thus contributes to a negatively charged
environment.
There are ways to deal with this, but first we have to
admit we have a problem. Remembering it is not a crime to
be a kid, let’s consider what we want and what they
want. Kids want to get together after school; we don’t
want them to use the library, except for quiet study or
research.
One idea is to make an afternoon Internet café for the
kids at the high school and maybe put in a big screen TV.
There would be no cost to the public of building or
renting and maintaining another building. And at the same
time adopt a no-tolerance policy in the library. It’s
time to generate some ideas.
Is anybody in Haverhill listening? Hey dudes, we
want our library back!
Mark Palermo is a
professor at Northern Essex Community College in
Haverhill and is the past vice-president of the faculty
union. You can email him at markpalermo@lycos.com.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The March 2007 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
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All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
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