{"id":25710,"date":"2021-09-10T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=25710"},"modified":"2025-04-15T12:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T16:06:18","slug":"confessions-of-a-library-bad-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2021\/09\/confessions-of-a-library-bad-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a Library \u201cBad Kid\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

True confession time: when I was ten, I got kicked out of my local public library and never went back. In fact, unless I was specifically required to for a school assignment, I didn\u2019t go to another library for a full fifteen years. On more than one occasion I told people how much I disliked libraries, and yet eventually I became a librarian myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Incident, Or: All The Good Books Are in the Adult Section<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I was a big reader as a kid. Huge. I also had a difficult childhood in an unstable home. Reading was my refuge, where I could escape what was going on around me. It was very, very rare that I had an adult who would take me to the library, but once they dropped me off and I was safely hidden in the stacks, I felt a blissful freedom to follow my passions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year I was ten, my passions were mainly books about a) witchcraft, b) ghost stories, and c) books where people got horribly murdered. After I had churned through Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark<\/em> and a few other books, the children\u2019s section didn\u2019t have much that interested me (oh, how things have changed!). The adult section, however, was a treasure trove of horror, true crime, and more. I was particularly excited about a pagan \u201cspellcraft\u201d book that promised spells to protect your home and to bring you wealth. Money and security were two things I desperately needed as a kid, so this book seemed like the promised land. I gathered it and a huge armload of others and went to check them out at the librarian\u2019s desk. She told me I couldn\u2019t check them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly adults can check out books from the adult section,\u201d she said. \u201cCome back with your mom. She can check them out for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The librarian had no way of knowing that I didn’t have an adult to come back with me. She took the books away, but I was undeterred. I decided I would spend the day at the library, and read the books there. I was happily sitting on the floor in the middle of the stacks, memorizing the ingredients for a protection spell, when an adult loomed over me. Another librarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be in here without an adult,\u201d she said. \u201cYou need to be in the children\u2019s section.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The books I want aren’t in the children’s section,” I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You need an adult to look at these books,” she said. “Go get your mom.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew two things at that point: 1. I desperately needed these books. 2. The library was not going to let me have these books. I came to what seemed like my only reasonable option, hid in the children’s section for a few minutes, and then snuck back to the adult section, crammed the books in my backpack, and tried to steal them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got caught. A very firm and scary (to me) librarian told me I wasn’t allowed to come back without a parent. So I didn’t come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Such Thing as “Bad Kids” at the Library<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As an adult and a children’s librarian, I’ve seen kids make some infuriating choices. Why did you graffiti that? Why are you climbing to the top of that bookshelf? Do you really think that I don’t see you eating the gummy worms I just asked you to put away? But sometimes (not all the time) I’m able to remember what it felt like to be a kid who didn’t have anyone to model good conflict resolution. To be a kid who felt like every interaction with an authority figure was automatically going to be a fight. To be a kid who just didn’t feel like they had any other options. A kid who only had themselves, and trusted no one else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also now know as an adult that sometimes adults don’t have all the options they wish they did. As a librarian, sometimes I get stuck between my library’s policies, and what the kid in front of me needs. Sometimes I’m able to side with the kid. Sometimes I’m not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do know that I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a “bad kid,” but rather a kid who doesn’t know they have other options. I’m also glad that, after fifteen years away, one day I noticed the library across the street from my apartment, and decided to take a quick look inside. It’s been ten years, and I haven’t been kicked out once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today\u2019s blogger is <\/em>Chelsey Roos<\/em><\/strong>. Chelsey has been a member of ALSC\u2019s Advocacy and Legislation committee, and was most recently a children\u2019s librarian at the Castro Valley Branch of the Alameda County Library.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog relates to ALSC Core Competencies of I. Commitment to Client Group<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

True confession time: when I was ten, I got kicked out of my local public library and never went back. In fact, unless I was specifically required to for a school assignment, I didn\u2019t go to another library for a full fifteen years. On more than one occasion I told people how much I disliked libraries, and yet eventually I became a librarian myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[2079,11,1605],"tags":[2265],"class_list":["post-25710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-chelsey-roos","category-priority-group-i","category-commitment-to-client-group","tag-child-advocacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}