[WEB4LIB] ABOUT HOMELESS PATRONS

[John Harvey]

At the Irving Public Library in Texas, we generally have, at any given time,
at least one "resident" homeless person. The frequency of their visits can
vary from two or three times a week to (as is the case currently) all day
every day.

To my knowledge, none of these individuals has ever had, let alone used, a
library card. However, most of them do spend their time reading and/or using
the Internet. In this respect, we have been lucky, since I have heard
numerous horror stories from colleagues at other, larger libraries (e.g,
Dallas Public) about their homeless patrons' behavior.

On the whole, they are no easier or difficult to deal with than any other
patron. We receive few, if any, complaints about their presence.

Our system serves a population of approximately 175,000.

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John C Harvey
Webmaster
Irving Public Library
jharvey at irving.lib.tx.us

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one
wants, and the other is getting it.  -Oscar Wilde

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Dawn Jones [SMTP:dawnjone at hawaii.edu]
> Sent:	Wednesday, September 13, 2000 4:43 AM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	[WEB4LIB] ABOUT HOMLESS PATRONS
> 
> 
> Thank-you to anyone who has time for a short personal opinion survey:
> 1)	Do homeless individuals visit your library?
> 2)	Frequency and duration of their visits?
> 3)	What do they do? Do they use their library cards for Internet
> access?
> 4)	How do other patrons feel about these people?
> 5)	Are you a library employee, or a patron?
> Please feel free to add any comments, experiences, or opinions of your
> own.
> Replies may be sent to dawnjone at hawaii.edu., before 9/18/2K.
> Thanks for your help.  Dawn Jones