[WEB4LIB] Patrons causing problems with online gaming sites

[Benjamin Sprague]

Michael,

I agree with you in that we don't want to punish all of the kids who use
our library because of a handful of problem patrons.  However, when none
of the patrons in question are willing to tell us who caused the damage,
it's hard to pinpoint one person and ban them from Internet use without
any actual evidence.  That's why I think that a mild threat of their
games getting banned would be enough to reduce the amount of trouble
we've had considerably.   We do have a computerized sign-up system for
our public computers, along with enforced time limits, but at the moment
there is no way to prevent them from using someone else's card to go
online or circumvent those time limits.

We're a fairly small public library to begin with (only 7 public
Internet stations), but recently we have seen over 350 patrons use our
computers in one week.  It's frustrating when a patron comes in and
realizes that the reason they can't get on a computer to get their work
done is because a bunch of kids are playing games instead of enjoying
the nice weather :)

On a side note, a computer / Internet cafe opened in our town recently,
and was in business for only a few weeks.  Apparently, people weren't
willing to pay for something they could get at the library for free ;)

Benjamin D. Sprague
----------------------
Circulation Supervisor /
Technology Services
Ripon Public Library
website: http://www.riponlibrary.org
email:   sprague at riponlibrary.org 


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Sauers [mailto:msauers at bcr.org]
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 9:48 AM
To: Sprague at riponlibrary.org; 'Multiple recipients of list'
Subject: RE: [WEB4LIB] Patrons causing problems with online gaming sites

[...]

The kids are causing trouble. Ban their behavior, which I'm sure you've
already done, and/or ban the children from the computers and/or library
as a
punishment for the behavior. Don't punish all the kids by banning games
since some of them are misbehaving.

[...]