Yesterday, in a local library here in Oxfordshire, a mother was using one of the public internet terminals.
Fortunately it was a quiet time, because she had with her a young child who was, frankly, out of control.
‘John. John!,’ she shouted at him from her chair in front of the computer. ‘Stop that!’
He didn’t.
She turned to one of the members of staff and shouted ‘I just can’t control him. Can you keep an eye on him for me?’
The diplomatic response of ‘Childminding isn’t really one of our duties’ didn’t, in my view, go far enough.
The mother in question didn’t alter what she was doing though. And neither did John.
Later, the mother had the temerity to ask the library staff to proof-read and punctuate the document she had typed.
Again there was a tactfully polite refusal.
My point is this: These days public libraries are all about ‘inclusion’ and ‘service provision’, but when some selfish cunt of a mother takes a disruptive child *in* to a library, and then ignores it (except for shouting at it) while it creates new levels of noise, the time for ‘inclusion’ and ‘service provision’ has gone.
The senior managers of the library service have let the demands (and ‘rights’) of the few outweigh the expectations – and even rights – of the many.
And the staff are too hidebound and restricted by the local authority rules of political correctness to be able to do anything about it – anything with teeth, that is, because ‘words of advice’ just bounce off some people
Serious library users find themselves being excluded by inconsiderate ‘service users’ who just don’t understand the basics of civilised behaviour.
These people should not be wrapped up and treated gently. They need to be thrown out.
Not very inclusive of me, is it? So sue me.
Give me my day in court and I’ll drag these ridiculous rules of public correctness out in to the light so we can all see how the ‘rights’ of the few are being given greater precedence than the ‘rights’ of the many.
That is all.
Sad, sad state of affairs. I think it’s got something to do with the “sense of entitlement” that seems to be prevalent from the stories I hear of council employees being harassed as if they have some kind of duty to ‘make the effort.’
All this talk of “Big Society” doesn’t go far enough to deal with people like this…
Bit too early for me to think straight.. I don’t think I would’ve been so restrained if I had been library staff. Inadvertent power cut to the PCs..
j
Sue you?
Not me, I’m in complete agreement.
I regularly take my boys to the library, and it quite frankly grips my shit when I see the the manner in which some parents allow their offspring to behave in the library.
My boys aren’t angels by any means, but thankfully, they understand what standards are expected when we go to the library.
Some larger town libraries appear to be used as some kind of drop in creche, with offspring being dumped whilst their gormless parents clear off to stock up on lard.
Inclusive be buggered, I’m amazed that staff are prepared to tolerate it.
“grips my shit”
My favourite new phrase.
Also, “drop in creche” is absolutely correct.
I’m saying no more.
If I’d have been behaving like that in a library, my mother would have dragged me out and then put the fear of god up me in the car park. If you can’t control your brat, don’t take it to public places because the rest of us don’t want to spend our day listening to it and trying not to fall over it as it rampages round our ankles. And be aware – If your child bites me, I will kick it.
James, I am stunned that Oxfordshire Libraries don’t have remote management software installed for public internet terminals. They are booked on a massively abused paper-based ‘trust’ (or mistrust) system that doesn’t even verify that the users are Library members (and therefore entitled to use the terminals). Users are only supposed to be online for an hour but when staff ‘humanly’ police the system they are abused and sworn at or – in most cases – just ignored. Back in Worcestershire access to PCs is governed by one’s library card PIN and there is no arguing with that. And people who abuse the environment could have their access disconnected remotely. It seems Oxfordshire has much to learn.
Gumpher, yet amazingly library staff are told they can’t interfere with wrong-doers. When I was a schoolboy if I made a squeak in Abergavenny library I’d have been chucked out. These days the staff in charge of library assistants are too hidebound by ‘inclusivity’ that excess noise, bad behaviour and threatening/bullying by members of the public are not disciplined.
Vicola, it seems you like me – and others hereabouts – were brought up with a higher set of values than is common these days!