Warren Graham - The Black Belt Librarian: Real-World Safety & Security

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W ARREN G RAHAM has worked as a security professional for more than twenty-five years, seventeen as the security manager of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Graham left the library in 2006 to establish Warren Davis Graham Training and Consulting. He has made countless presentations and is a leading speaker internationally on practical day-to-day library security procedures. Contact Graham for training and consulting through his website: www.blackbeltlibrarians.com.

2012 by the American Library Association. Any claim of copyright is subject to applicable limitations and exceptions, such as rights of fair use and library copying pursuant to Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. No copyright is claimed for content in the public domain, such as works of the U.S. government.

Extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of the information in this book; however, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

ISBNs: 978-0-8389-1137-2 (paper); 978-0-8389-9373-6 (PDF); 978-0-8389-9374-3 (ePub); 978-0-8389-9375-0 (Mobipocket); 978-0-8389-9376-7 (Kindle). For more information on digital formats, visit the ALA Store at alastore.ala.org and select eEditions.

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN -P UBLICATION D ATA

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available at http://catalog.loc.gov/.

Book design in Fanwood and Novecento by Casey Bayer

Cover illustration Csaba Peterdi/Shutterstock, Inc.

For my coworkers on Planet Library, especially the librarian who once left me this anonymous note before one of my presentations:

Where in the library is the most appropriate place for crazy people to hang out?

Contents

Stories from the Front Trenches

Twelve Essential Elements of Real-World Library Security

The opinions expressed in this book are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of any previous or current employer of mine. But they should.

Much has changed in the library world since I started consulting full time five years ago. Most libraries are facing serious budget cuts. Staffs are being reduced, and hours of operation are being lessened. At the same, libraries are busier than ever. With the nations unemployment rate high, library resources are in serious demand.

With increased usage usually comes an increase in behavior problems. You can sit back and list the reasons for erratic behavior and give patrons all the excuses you want, but the bottom line is that the library environment still must be maintained. And to the average Joe, that means an atmosphere conducive to reading, research, studying, and learning.

I was quite excited to be asked by ALA to help provide them with updated editions of my two books. It is a great honor for me, a nonlibrarian, to be asked to do so. It has given me the opportunity to go back through the text to tweak and expand many points. It also assists me in what I set out to do originally by forming my own consulting company: to help as many librarians and library staff as I could by providing them with information that I know from my own experiences would immediately improve their workplace. The book is intended as a quick read to aid you daily as a reference and training guide.

There is often a huge gap between a library concept and the concepts application in a realistic, functioning way. This information will help you bridge that gap. I have never said that my way is the only way, but it is indeed a proven way. In the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, working with the director who hired me to solve the mystery of behavior problems in the library, Robert Cannon, we proved it could be doneeven in an environment that was most dire in the beginning. What has been quite interesting to me is that, in all my journeys all over North America, I have not seen one reason to change the way we approached security. If I started working at your library today, I would follow these same procedures.

No library wants problem patrons, but they are coming. I for one would rather be ready for them.

Thanks to my grandmother, Mary Flowers, whom I often quote in my seminar. She was always there for me with constant love whenever I needed her. I miss her every day. She saved the child.

Thanks to my high school guidance counselor, William Bill Lindsay, who took time to listen to a lost and petrified high school senior. He encouraged my college education and was the first adult to tell me I had potential. He saved the teenager.

And thanks to my wife Jessica, who is even more beautiful on the inside. I would not be writing this were it not for her encouragement. I couldnt accomplish much without her. She saved the man.

Charlotte and Mecklenburg County library director Robert Cannon called me up one afternoon during my duties as security manager for an uptown mall that was situated right across the street from the main library. The library was closed temporarily, being refurbished and expanded from 60,000 to 160,000 square feet. He asked me how I went about controlling the many potential problems in my facility. He then quickly stole me away. Two weeks later, I was working for the library, only one short month before its grand reopening.

The late Nina Lyon, the finest overall librarian I have ever known and then manager of the main library building, took me on a tour and laid out the situation. She told me that in the old building she had to handle multiple security situations every single day. There had been no formal rules for library use and no consistency in the attempts to control behavior. The library had gone through several contract security companies that had all categorically failed. There was no standardized record keeping, and most of the daily patrons were using the building not as a library but as a home.

But, what could really happen in here? I silently asked myself as I was given a tour of the main library. Could they really be having the level of problems that was being described to me? Or was I simply working with a bunch of frightened librarians who were afraid of their own shadows?

To my genuine surprise, it was soon evident that the former was indeed the case. On the librarys grand reopening day, after the building had been closed for two years of renovation, I can honestly say I was astounded at the situations I encountered. Intermingled with the majority of patrons, who were there for all the right reasons and enjoying the facility, were a mix of behavior problems than ran the gamut from the innocuous to the insane.

There were people who apparently had waited patiently for the previous twenty-four months to take a bath in our restrooms. Someone actually asked me if he could rent a shower. Many children ran rampant like baby cheetahs, and it was their oblivious parents who were at fault. More than a few thought this was a new library in every sense, and thus they owed nothing for lost or overdue materials. A few perverts experimented with new techniques of staring through the stacks at female patrons. One fine fellow actually had a small mirror duct-taped to the top of his shoe to facilitate looking up skirts, but only of patrons who were at least fifty years of age! And to round it all off, there was a good dose of genuinely disturbed people who had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do but come visit us. One fellow had a briefcase full of metal washers. He just wanted to sit at a table and see how high he could stack them, and he told everyone in no uncertain terms to stay away from him.