September 27, 2011
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Library Vandalism
I just think this is so crazy that I feel the need to share.
We have a serial vandal at our library. Our cute little library! Here is the story:
As in most librarys, we have chairs and study carrels placed around our library. Some of these are near electrical outlets, and some are not. We don’t have an overwhelming amount of access to electricity (and some of our patrons have complained about it; it is being addressed in the plans for the remodel supposed to happen in the next year or two) but there is usually enough to keep our laptop and other electronic device users happy.
Well, one particular study carrel is located near an outlet. For safety, we have child safety things (I’m sure they have a name, and I’m sure I don’t know what it is) in all of our outlets that adult patrons can simply remove in order to plug in their devices. Someone at this study carrel has removed the child safety things, broken off the prongs, shoved them into the outlets, and then painted over it with nail polish.
WHAT?!
And not just once or twice, but at least 3 times over the last 2 weeks. This is not only annoying, but dangerous, as the nail polish can act as a conductor which could create all kinds of serious problems and injuries.
The management of the library decided to address this issue by plugging in a surge protector into the outlet, and then covering the outlet with the said study carrel so that the outlet itself wasn’t easily accessible, but someone needing to plug in a device could use the surge protector. They sent out an email explaining this to everybody so that we weren’t surprised at the rearrangement, and to just keep everyone aware of the situation.
Well this morning at the brief meeting we have before we open the library, our general manager informed us that the outlet is STILL being vandalized! They checked on the outlet in question and what they found was that the surge protector has been stolen, the study carrel moved (not exactly back to its original position, but haphazardly pushed to one side in order to expose the outlet), and the same vandalism with the nail polish done again!
WHAT?!
Who does that to a library outlet? Who does that to ANY outlet? What do people have against access to electricity? The only thing we can think of is that possibly this person really likes that particular area, and is also particulary laptop user UNfriendly and wants to ensure that no laptop user will encroach on his/her territory. But really sir, or madam, this is not the way to go about that.
So I guess from now on we will all be keeping our eyes peeled for any person or persons in that area and our noses peeled for any scent of nail polish. Never a dull moment at the local public library, I tell you what.
Comments (2)
Oh, my goodness! How sad that someone feels the need to vandalize the
library – and such a nice one it is, too! Hope y’all catch the person!
I certainly do hope that you catch them and prosecute when you do. Dangerous and just plain stupid. They need to get a life!