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Re: Retaliatory denial of service. Reference Desks. Boston Public Library.



At 01:04 PM 7/26/02 -0500, you wrote:
Yes, I was wondering myself. Is that where you deny service to someone who
has proven to be a trouble maker?

Barbara M. Pope, MLS
Reference Librarian
St. Louis College of Pharmacy

        Everybody is so busy treating this as a Friday Funny that nobody
but Barbara Pope has taken Mr. Saklad's question as worthy of serious
consideration.

        As archivists we're the ultimate gatekeepers: nobody can get at
our stuff unless we fetch it for them.  Mostly our finding aids are still
so esoteric that users need our help simply to find out what we have.  And
our collections are unique, so people we turn away can't go elsewhere.

        What do you do if I deny you the use of my collection because
you're a moslem/a woman/Don Saklad/unshaven/you annoyed me last week?  I
work for a state institution with a strong open records law, so you do
indeed have legal recourse.  You could complain to my boss about my public
service demeanor even at a private institution.

        For that matter, how do I defend myself if I'm accused of
"retaliatory discrimination."  Barbara Pope talks about denying service to
someone *proven* to be a troublemaker.  That's a good idea, but doesn't it
only push things back one remove--do I now have to document it every time
someone bothers me in case I need to defend myself later?

        Usually, I think, we deal with troublesome users, unless they are
truly disruptive, by giving them what they want and sending them on their
way as quickly as possible.  How have members of this list dealt with
actual situations of this sort, from either side of the reference counter?

--Steve Masar
University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives

[...]

On Fri, 26 Jul 2002, Don Saklad wrote:

> a. What area of law could it fall under with respect to a complaint of
>     retaliatory denial of service at our city's public library
>     reference desk?...
>
> b. Do equal access protections protect our cities'
>     public libraries users/clientele/customers/consumers against
>     retaliatory treatment?...
>
> c. Exactly what protections from retaliatory acts of reference desk
>     supervisory, managerial and executive officers are there with
>     respect to equal access at our cities' public libraries?...
>

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