Dear council members and city manager:
I write to complain about the library. My concern is the amorality — I think that’s the term.
It starts with the noise. The library is as quiet or as unquiet as its individual patrons. I am a regular and never, not once,
have I seen or heard any librarian say anything to anyone being loud or otherwise annoying on behalf of the interests of the
people sitting quietly and reading.
There seems to be an unspoken rule that patrons are no longer responsible for their own behavior. You might as well ask a dog for
a responsive comment on this issue than ask a Menlo Park librarian. The look of incomprehension in response to my complaint would
be the same.
And since we’re talking about behavior, the other day I made an error and neglected to properly log out of a Chrome laptop that
you can check out from a kiosk in the library. Little did I know that my email account was open and available to the next user of
that particular machine.
That person chose to write me a note from my own account, satirizing a message I’d sent to two friends under the subject “For your
eyes only.” This person opened that message, read about the confidential book project I ‘m working on, and made a lame attempt at
humor to me, followed by a concerning message that what he may have done was not OK with me. He asked me if what he did was OK.
The next day, I asked the librarian about this situation. We went to the kiosk and he determined who had checked out the Chrome
laptop at the time the messages were sent. He did not reveal this person’s name, and I accept the reasoning for that. But he said
he would bring it up at a staff meeting.
Meanwhile, while we were huddled at the kiosk working on the chronology, the perpetrator was apparently watching. I turned briefly
to the reference desk to look at my computer and found a torn piece of paper there with a message to me, in pencil, saying that I
need not be concerned, that my password as safe. It was signed with the same phony name used in the first two messages. The person
was there in the room and eavesdropping.
I wrote to the library website with what I’m saying here and was told to I should cancel my email account. I forgot to log out, so
it’s my fault. My age (70) was not a factor, apparently. Likewise with the crummy gossamer-like character of Chrome laptops,
devices that are bewildering for anyone who is not a digital native. The library has no recourse, I was told. No one can approach
the perpetrator and tell him that what he did, while not against the law, was an offense against common decency, that a person
with common decency logs out when coming upon an account mistakenly left open. Why is this not an option? What would be cause for
a lecture on behavior appropriate in a public library? Is such a concept even conceivable anymore?
So this specimen, also a regular apparently, haunts the library, eavesdropping, looking for opportunities, all under the
benevolent eye of the staff, who “have no recourse.” He’s also feeling guilty, otherwise why the note? My hope is that he avoids
trying to assuage it by revealing to me who he is and reiterating to me that he did not steal my password. I would not take kindly
to that.
I am not happy with this state of affairs, with the library and its laissez faire policies. I thought you should know. Not that
you can or will do anything about it. Caveat emptor, right? Even in the public library. I’ll reserve expressing the profanity that
this situation richly deserves.
Dave Boyce, resident
Sent from my iPad
