What troubles librarians most

I'm on this committee who's purpose is to draft policy to deal with extreme library behavior. We're going to individual libraries to talk to them about how to use library policy to handle patrons and circumstances that are "out of the ordinary."

What it seems that most of the libraries want to talk about, what is troubling them most, is unattended children. This is a problem that is striking every library, from the ones who serve the upper middle class to the branch in the poorer areas. At a staff meeting last week we did not get to finish everything we wanted to say because the library staff wanted to focus on the issue of unattended children.

How do you deal with an unattended child who's causing a ruckus? What happens when a parent does not handle their own children? What happens when a parent simply isn't there? Library policy DOES address these issues but a librarian has to ACT on the policy and that is never simple. Some librarians are simply content to sit behind the desk and have the problem sort itself out or ignore it entirely. You cannot ignore an unattended five year old roaming around the library, asking questions every five minutes and pulling books off the shelves. Yet it seems like some librarians are trying very hard to do so.