Is there anything in the works to address the problem of meeting room squatters & their unattended personal belongings on the 2nd & 3rd floors?
Library policy says that "Unattended bags represent a safety and security risk and may not be left on library property," so what is our cutoff if someone needs to use the restroom or have a smoke or, like today, make a phone call from outside the building? Is it 10 minutes? 20 minutes? Whenever other customers start complaining that there are no meeting rooms available because people are "camping out?"
Essentially, at what point is the bag or other personal property considered "unattended?"
And, once a customer's property is considered "unattended," is the proper procedure to contact security to have the item(s) removed and taken to lost and found?
When another staff member and I asked for security to remove some items from a meeting room earlier today, it was suggested that we (HPL staff) remove the items and put them behind the desk (at R3). I think this is a bad idea because aren't we (HPL staff) then taking possession of the customer's property and, therefore, responsible for it in some way?
I explained this to the security officer and someone on their team did remove the items shortly afterward.
... Allen
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
At UH-Downtown, we used Milcirc to check out meeting rooms for two hours at a time, with overdue fines. We also had a hotel-style key card system, where if a key card was lost it could be de-activated with one phone call and replaced for about $10. We put barcodes on the cards and checked the cards out. The system worked pretty well.
We had the same kind of room reservation system at the Texas A&M Library. It worked out well because when people began treating the study rooms like laptops (knowing that fines would be attached if late or vandalized), they shaped up. I would be happy to help out with this, if needed.
An item is unattended any time someone walks away from it--for no matter how long. If staff members see this, they need to call security. If security is not willing to address the issue, a supervisor needs to be informed so that can be resolved.
The hold up on this issue has been the getting study room keys issued that can be accessed by all staff. Once this occurs, a solution is easy. I will restress to the Planning and Facilities Department the importance of getting this taken care of as soon as possible. I apologize to all staff for this delay.
Also, swipe cards are a great idea; I really like how UHD is operating. Unfortuantely, at this time, there are no funds for this kind of project.
Thanks,
Mike VC
Post a Comment