The new policy went into effect November 1, three months after a 15-year-old girl reported that a man had tried to molest her on the first floor of the downtown library. Dismissing any cause-and-effect link, Hoffman said, “It’s not one incident that caused us to say we need to change policy, but looking at the world today, unfortunately things do happen.” She went on to say that OCL officials took the action to make library visits “more positive, more secure for our children.”
The precautionary measure is receiving mixed reviews in the library community. Acknowledging the policy’s good intentions, young-adult author and former Orlando resident Lisa Yee told the Sentinel that it also “prevents writers, book lovers, and other people from taking advantage of the library and the children’s department.” Cynthia Richey, president of the American Library Association’s Association for Library Service to Children, characterized the action as “a preemptive move” that she predicted “is going to become more common.”
Posted December 3, 2004.