It Comes with the Territory: Handling Problem Situations in Libraries » (REV)

Turner, director of the Santa Cruz City Council Library System, offers a commonsense guide to setting fair and appropriate behavior rules and training staff in how to implement them. Emphasizing staff training and writing effective manuals, she addresses problems such as the use of the library for sleeping by the homeless, inappropriate Internet use by patrons, the use of the library as a babysitter, and the threat of violence. Appendices offer guidelines for policy development and sample procedures and polices. This second edition contains expanded material on censorship, e-mail, chat rooms, and web sites. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Library Journal

Anyone who works in a library knows that there are issues in dealing with the public on an almost daily basis. Turner, director of the Santa Cruz City-County Library System, CA, first addressed this topic in 1992, advising librarians on how to write rules of behavior that were easy for the public to understand and for the staff to implement. The new edition is not much changed from the original except for the addition of the chapter on Internet use, which was not a factor in libraries in the early 1990s, and the elimination of a chapter on exhibits and meeting rooms. If you don't already have the 1992 edition, consider buying this as an extra tool if you work in a small- or medium-sized library. Use this book in conjunction with Rebecca Brumley's The Public Library Manager's Forms, Policies, and Procedures Manual and Jeanette Larsen and Herman Totten's Model Policies for Small and Medium Public Libraries.-Marie Bruni, Huntington Memorial Lib., Oneonta, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.