Deciding at what age children may be left at the library is a difficult. The library staff desire to be a welcoming place to patrons of all ages. The desire must be balanced with safety issues and the inability of library staff to serve as "babysitters."
The Library encourages children of all ages to visit the Library with their family to take advantage of the resources available for them to meet their informational, recreational, cultural, and educational needs. The responsibility for the child’s health, safety, and behavior at the Library resides with the parent or guardian. Library staff is not responsible for the supervision and care of children visiting the Library. This policy applies to children of all ages who visit the library.
Any child visiting the Library who has not yet entered the 7th grade must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Children under the age of seven must be accompanied and directly supervised at all times by a responsible adult. For the purpose of the policy, a responsible adult is the child’s parent or another caregiver aged eighteen or over.
All children visiting the Library are expected to display only appropriate behavior. Persistent inappropriate behavior is grounds for suspension of library privileges. Disorderly conduct, fighting, harassment or any illegal activity will result in immediate suspension from the Library.
Children in grades 7 or above may visit the Library unattended, subject to the Library’s Rules of Conduct and definition for appropriate behavior. Definitions for appropriate and inappropriate behavior and the procedures for handling inappropriate behavior can be found in the Library Policy Manual.
All children must be picked up by the Library’s closing time. If the child is not picked up by closing time city police will be notified no later than 15 minutes after closing. Two Library staff members will stay with the child until the police arrive. Under no circumstances will staff take children home. In case of a medical emergency library staff will call 911.
