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 do hope that's not the case. Because we're mainly a university community with, on the whole, only occasional access from the public - we don't have the problems of a public library. But many of my colleagues over here, and me, have had years of public library experience. We certainly do discuss these things openly, and exchange experiences and actions taken.

On a lighter note - just for a moment: Remember the old "Brown" issue systems in public libraries? Where the book tickets were inserted into the readers' tickets and the things were filed in trays on the library counter? Yes, I know it's a long time ago... Well, one of the users in the PL where I used to work as a young librarian suddenly leant over the library counter one day, and was copiously sick into all the issue trays. That was fun.

We also had two elderly users who fought each other - like Basil Rathbone and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - with umbrellas over a particular book they both wanted.

And now, unwillingly, back on thread again...