The reason I ask the question is because I have asked one of our State Senators if public libraries could, in the case of child sexual predators who have been convicted and must register with the police, be treated as if they were a school: off limits to the guy. The Senator (a woman and a mother) has ask that a bill be crafted to that end; I have also ask a State Representative (of the other party) if he would support such a measure; he will, because he was out of the house and I talked to his wife.

I have been told that some of the Board of Directors of the Idaho Library Association had "reservations" about such legislation.

So do I, but I cannot let the Library for which I am responsible become a hunting ground for pedophiles. We are, for better or worse and rightly or wrongly, trusted by the community and I feel that I cannot betray that trust.

The young man who had the knife pulled on him was the son of one of my employees; at the time she was talking with another employee, a grandmother. The "perp" was caught within a hour; he was recognized by the employees as he left the building and id'ed by the kid (who kept his cool remarkably well during the whole thing). I'm glad he was caught be the police; if his mother and the other staff member would have caught him I would have had to deal with a headline of "Librarians Lynch Pervert" -- not something I really want to deal with. (Well, they probably wouldn't have really gone that far, but he wouldn't have enjoyed his time before the cops arrived.)

Pedophiles in public libraries -- like the exhibitionists, frotteurs, shoe fetishists, "look up the skirt" camera users, and others like these -- are one of the things librarians prefer not to talk about. I don't care if gay meets gay at the library (as long as they don't use the place for more than that) any more than I care if straight meets straight (ditto). I care very much that children be safe there.

I'm afraid I might have to piss off my State's library association and possibly even the State Library on this matter.