Library’s goal of public safety causes conflict among its volunteers
Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007
Unannounced criminal background checks on Fayetteville Public Library employees and the possibility of criminal checks on the 160-400 library volunteers have led to what might be called a sensitive situation at the library.
Executive Director Louise Schaper talked about a communication problem and the responsibility the library has for the safety of its patrons, including many children.
“ Anybody with a badge is someone people would trust, and that’s why we need to do this, ” Schaper said.
She said she wants to make sure volunteers are people children can trust.
Volunteers, some of whom resigned over the matter, wrote in letters to Schaper and board members about being offended and dismayed, about anger and disappointment, and about misuse of power.
Norma Reed, who volunteered at the library for three years, described the background checks as humiliating.
“ I was hurt and angry when I learned of these new background checks, ” she wrote in a letter explaining her reason for no longer volunteering. “ Maybe that’s because of my Southern upbringing. You don’t question a person’s character or truthfulness until you have a reason. ”
Library staff has been working on a public safety policy since about July. It will be presented to the board of directors, perhaps in December. In the meantime, staff is gathering information on policies of other libraries and nonprofit institutions.
What kind of checks and on whom they should be conducted, such as on existing or only new employees and volunteers, have not been decided, said Dan Ferritor, board president.
Although a policy is not in effect, criminal background checks were run on all employees and were unannounced, Schaper confirmed.
“ It was a mistake, ” she said.
She said the Fayetteville Police Department did not provide her with any individual data, only that all of the staff was fine.
Schaper described it as a mistake of miscommunication.
“ What happened was we were looking at the process of how to do it and it happened, rather than looking at the process, communicating to staff and then doing it, ” she said.
Background checks were not run on volunteers.
Letters from resigning volunteers suggest employees only learned of the criminal checks at a staff meeting after they were conducted.
“ We have since communicated with everyone to let everybody know, ” Schaper said.
“ I am sure you acted in the conviction that such a procedure was in the best interest of the Library, but I strongly disagree, and am frankly appalled, ” wrote John Bancroft of Fayetteville.
Bancroft, a library volunteer, described himself as someone with more than 30 years of administration and management of professional staffs and volunteers.
“ The reach of a criminal background check is far too broad and allencompassing for the Library’s purposes, ” he wrote.
He said much of the information that might surface could be irrelevant to the volunteers’ work, that there was no assurance of confidentiality on the control or use of the information, and that it was unclear who would have access to it.
“ Taken at its face value, the procedure intentionally or inadvertently conveys arrogant contempt for the value to the Library of the volunteers, as well as disregard for their privacy, ” Bancroft wrote.
Like Reed, his letter announced his resignation. “ I leave solely because I will not connect myself with a procedure which is ill-conceived, abusive, unnecessary — and just plain silly, ” he wrote. A revised volunteer application identifying the possibility of a background check has already been instituted.
Some current volunteers have come in and offered to sign it, Schaper said.
Wrapped into the situation is the September resignation of Georgia Kunze as volunteer coordinator. Volunteer letters state Kunze was forced out and some of about a dozen letters tie her departure to the background check policy being developed.
Schaper said Kunze was not asked to resign and, because it is a personnel matter, she cannot discuss it further.
“ All I can say is she resigned and we were as surprised as anyone else, ” the executive director said.
Kunze did not return calls Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Schaper tied the need for a public safety policy to increased use of the library, noting in a draft of the possible policy that 2, 000 adults, children and teens use the library each day.
In that draft, staff identifies 13 public safety policies put in place at the library, ranging from fire extinguisher training and inspections to strengthened close-down procedures and code alerts for missing children.
The draft also reports an increase in theft, civil disturbance, inappropriate customer behavior, power outages and fire alarms in the three years since moving to the new building. There has also been an increase in the number of employees and volunteers.
“ It’s a vastly changing environment with Internet crimes, sex offender crimes, identity theft and drug-related crimes more frequently in the news — in our area, not just nationally, ” Schaper said. “ We want to reduce risk of employee or volunteer criminal activities through the use of appropriate tools to screen employees and volunteers.
“ I think that we could do a better job of communicating that, but I think that the intention is a very good intention because our goal is to make the library as safe as possible for members of the public, the staff, the volunteers. I regret that we didn’t do as good a job in communicating that. If there was any kind of miscommunication, we are working hard to address that. ”
Ferritor said he knows there is some question to the value of such checks because people don’t get caught for most of the bad things they do.
Still, he sees a value in it.
“ I’m trying to figure out who it ought to be done on, and I don’t have an answer on this, ” he said. “ We’ve got lots and lots of kids in there, and whether you like it or not, we have parents that leave kids off at the library.
“ The library is responsible for the people that it hires, and I think the library is responsible for its volunteers. You don’t want to go crazy and do too much, but by the same token, you want to make sure it’s a thoughtful policy. ”
Schaper said her goal in the future is to have an open meeting and a meeting for volunteers about the public safety policy.
“ If people were unhappy, then I’m really, really glad it was because of the issue of miscommunicating, of not communicating as well as we should, ” she said. “ I’m really, really glad it’s not because something happened here at the library. ”
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