Kids in the Academic Library

The big topic of discussion at MPOW today revolved around what to do about the kids in the library (by kids, I mean high school, junior high, or younger). Our particular library has a proud tradition of being extremely accessible to the community. We offer a consumer health collection, provide reference services to anyone who walks in the door or calls, and allow anyone to use the computer workstations without a university username and password. Gradually, over the past year or so, the word has gotten out to neighborhood kids that we don't lock down the computers and they have naturally gravitated to us. Most of the kids are well-behaved, orderly and respectful of the space and other users . They come in, borrow headphones, listen to music, chat, check their email, do homework, surf, and play games (we have no library policies against any of these activities for any of our users). I have never seen an affiliated patron not be able to find a workstation. Even so, significant problems have recently arisen. Especially on nights and weekends, their numbers have increased considerably. Some of the kids are noisy and disrespectful, others have started to bring their younger siblings and our university patrons have started to complain.

So, where does this leave us? The requisite committee is being formed to consider our options. I would hate to see us resort to extreme measures, such as locking down all the workstations, banning activities such as gaming, chat and social networking, or prohibiting kids entirely. On the other hand, I am concerned about the increasing numbers of young kids who are being left unattended in the library or who are in the care of siblings who are only slightly older. Were something to happen to one of these kids, what responsibility would the library have? I'm also concerned that some of our university patrons are starting to feel like they are unable to work in the library because of the kids. Only a few kids behave inappropriately, but they can be truly disruptive. As word continues to spread, I'm a bit concerned that we will be absolutely besieged when summer rolls around. Even given all of this, I'm quite concerned about the fact that kids are not being adequately served by the library community as a whole. Due to ongoing budget shortfalls, the closest public library branch has been closed and the remaining libraries are open very few hours, especially during nights and weekends. How can we make something good come out of all of this? Call me naive and a starry-eyed idealist, but I very much hope we can figure out how to respond to this situation in a creative, constructive, positive manner without resorting to draconian measures.