The Liminal Librarian

Twice this weekend, I had to wait for parents to pickup children. Three sets of parents picked up kids. Two sets of parents seemed just to listen out of courtesy and not concern for the "If your kids are not picked up by (20) actually 15 minutes after close we normally call the police for providing assistance in watching over unattended children." They arrived at about 15 to 20 minutes late. Both parents just seemed to provide a quick "Oh, okay." They smiled and then were off as quickly as they could drive away on Saturday. The third was only about 5 minutes late, and to the three of us waiting for unattended children it was not a big deal. Sometimes, it is flat out frustrating like the parents who felt uncomfortable hurrying along the waitor to show up for a nearby restaraunt one hour and twenty minutes late.
The police that night were to busy to come by and pick the kids up...

I think of the daycare organizations who charge 1 dollar per minute for being late upon close time. This library charges a $20.00 plus fee if you leave your car in the garage past close and want to get it out of the locked garage during non-library hours. It is frustrating.

I guess this is my venting for the day about the weekend...
 

As a stay at home Dad to be (12 days and counting) and a technology trainer, you'd be surprised at how many staff have jokingly asked, "you know, if the library started up a daycare for staff, you could totally run it."

I probably would, too.
 

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Sounds like a winner to me!
 

It's an interesting approach ... but as it stands libraries are not *legally* responsible for what happens to kids. We're not "in loco parentis" the ways schools are.

Accepting money for a baby-sitting service would mean that we are responsible in that way. I rather doubt we'd be able to distinguish between the "paid for" and the "non-paid for" if something happened.
 

Bob - I can't see as how this would be different than similar services at the Y, IKEA, the shopping mall, none of whom are normally in loco parentis.
 

They're assuming responsibility for the child's safety.

If a child is left at the library and "Uncle Dan" comes by to pick him/her up we've no way of knowing if this is truly a relative sent to pick up the child. If we had a separate drop-off area (and accepted responsibility) we *might* be able to distinguish between the "child dropped off and we're aware of" from the "child dropped off and we're not aware of" ... but I doubt it.
 

We do like IKEA -- the person who signs the kid in has to sign the kid out, it involves hand stamps and pagers and signatures, caregiver must sign something saying they'll be in the library at all times, and limit it to an hour...