Kids 10 and up can now use library on own

Updated library rules still leave parents responsible for children’s behaviour

Ten-year-olds can use the library “independently,” according to a new set of guidelines at Peterborough Public Library — but if lone kids misbehave, the parents or caregivers are still held responsible.

Guidelines for leaving children unattended at Peterborough Public Library were updated for the first time in 23 years at a library board meeting on Tuesday.

In 1996, the rule was that librarians were not responsible for children’s safety. Parents were always expected to supervise their kids.

Never mind leaving a kid to wander the stacks alone with a parent elsewhere in the building: there were no guidelines around that.

New guidelines approved by the library board on Tuesday are far more detailed.

“Children ages 10 and over are welcome to use the library independently, but parents or caregivers are still responsible for the whereabouts and behaviour of their child (ren) while in the library,” the guidelines state.

Make no mistake: librarians are still not babysitters.

Children younger than five years old must have a parent or caregiver with them at all times in the library — even when children are participating in a program.

But there are also further details in the new guidelines:

Kids aged five to nine must have a parent or caregiver on the same floor with them at the library — unless the children are participating in a library program. If a child’s in a program, parents must remain in the building and promptly pick up the kid when the program’s over.

If a child is left in the library at closing time, and a staff person cannot contact a parent or caregiver within 15 minutes, staff will notify police.

Meanwhile there is latitude when it comes to leaving their child in the library with an older sibling or a babysitter.

A younger child can beat the library e with a caregiver who’s 12 or older.

Many library board members said Tuesday they remember using the library all alone as kids.

But the ages specified in the guidelines aren’t hard-and-fast rules, said library CEO Jennifer Jones.

“We aren’t carding them (children),” she said.

Jones also said there’s a reason for guidelines: Sometimes children are left alone in the library while parents are gone shopping, for example.

She also said there was one occasion when a couple of boys — aged about eight — came to the library unattended and were presumably cutting school.

The boys were rambunctious and ran around the library all day — then returned the next day, Jones said.

Coun. Henry Clarke, a library board member, quipped that he likes the jokey policies of some stores: Children left unattended will receive a free sugary drink and a kitten.

The Peterborough Public Library’s main branch is on Aylmer Street and there aren’t any kittens there.