That’s a terrible excuse for unfriendly attitudes and behavior.

Library staff have to explain policies to library users every day, and doing so in a hostile or indifferent manner means a poor standard of customer service. It’s 100% possible to explain a policy, even a prohibition on photography, in a courteous and friendly way.

Personally, I think the main reason this happens is that administration and/or management is too busy strategizing in backrooms instead of first observing what is actually happening in their libraries, in particular, how spaces are being used by customers. This is also a prime reason why its taken so long for libraries of all sizes to catch up to what’s going on with technology.

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If someone is swearing in the library, do we need a policy that requires all patrons to get staff permission before speaking? If someone has bad breath, do we need a policy that requires all patrons to get staff permission before the breathe? Of course not – we just to enforce the polices they have, rather than writing new blanket policies every time some new situation arises.

However, I think this is a policy story and not one of our freedom to take photographs. It’s another example of trying to cover all the bases instead of stopping the creep who is stalking someone in a library or taking photos under a table and letting the citizen who likes the building take a photo.

I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago in Montreal at a new, stunning library there. I loved the lobby of the structure so took some images and I was severely reprimanded. How ludicrous. I’ll never go back and I’ve told everybody I know about my treatment.

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Thank you and keep up the good work.

What I have learned over the years is that trying to prevent harassment through policies blocking possibly innocent secondary behaviors tends to hurt innocent people while the harassers continue. The best thing you can do is train your staff how to stay polite and smile, but if they believe someone is being harassed, write up excellent documentation and ask the patron(s) if they want the police called. It is not your job to be the police.

Once you start saying, “You can’t take pictures in this public place because…” that’s when they start telling people you can’t take pictures in a park, or of brutality, or of anything else they don’t want anyone to see. Public is public. You have a right not to be harassed, but you do not have a right to infringe on the rights of others because of your own fears.