Sunday, May 21, 2006

2492 Libraries probably aren't allowed to report this

A librarian is asked about finding the sexual offender site on the library computer. Here's what happened:

"A young woman approached LHL to access the database. She was guided to a computer and into the database. LHL discreetly retired to the desk.

The young woman came back. "I can’t find him in this thing. He said he was in there!"

LHL said, "Well, let's check if he is in the general offender database."

"He'd better be," she said. "He SAID he was in the computer."

LHL found him and pulled up the entry. The young woman went berserk. She pulled her little boy over to see the screen, pointing at it and hollering, "Look, there he is on the computer! That's his name! See?" She was laughing and hugging her son, obviously happy to have found him.

Her next stop was to find an arson charge for the same man. This seemed to be even more exciting because it had a mug shot. More laughing and hugging.

LHL was stunned. I was stunned when she told me. It was as though her boyfriend was a celebrity because he was "in the computer".

See? This is why saying that parents need to decide what's good for their children in libraries (like my public library) is a can of worms. What do you do when the parents are totally irresponsible?

This odd case is reported at Feel-good librarian.

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