Library restricts guests’ bags, food

The Columbus Metropolitan Library wants to be open to all, as is inscribed on the entrance to the main site Downtown.

But it also wants to provide a positive experience for everyone.

So changes to the library’s code of conduct — rules that restrict what people can bring in, where they can eat and whether they can sleep there — were not taken lightly by the library’s board of directors, who discussed the changes taking effect Dec. 1 at its meeting Thursday.

“There is that fine balance,

that we remain open to all, including the homeless, while also being mindful to the customer experience of others,” said Ben Zenitsky, library spokesman.

The library board voted to ban items a bit larger than carry-on bags from being brought into its 23 library branches “to dispel the notion that customers are camping out at the library,” Zenitsky said. Patrons also will be prohibited from leaving bags unattended or in the care of other visitors unless they are family members.

Visitors also will be limited to three “bags, backpacks, boxes, carts, wheeled conveyances”

not to exceed 32 by 18 by 15 inches “individually or collectively,” according to policy changes. Exceptions will be made for strollers and wheelchairs.

And food will not be allowed under the new policy — except for snacks and items bought at library cafes — unless it is consumed in meeting rooms, which must be scheduled in advance.

In a rare appearance by the public at a library trustees meeting, a woman who is homeless blasted the board for the new policy, arguing that it singles out the needy.

“I’m getting the vibe from security that there is just some kind of war going on with the homeless,” said the woman, who wouldn’t give her name, saying she feared retaliation.

“They do not want them in the library; they do not want them on the plaza.

“You just can’t pick and choose who can be in the library. ... Either we’re all welcome, or none of us are welcome.”

The woman said she was asked to leave the Main Library last Friday, after security guards confronted her about several large pieces of luggage and bags that she had wheeled in on a modified shopping cart.

At the time, there was no written policy on the size and number of bags allowed inside.

The library is sensitive to homeless issues, and the Main Library has a part-time social worker to assist people in need, library Director Pat Losinski said. “We see the homeless as an important

constituency that we have an important obligation to serve,” he said.

Before voting on the policy changes, Columbus library officials sought guidance from libraries across the country and the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District “to review what is the right balance here,” Losinski said. They also checked with airports, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and other venues, said Alison Circle, the library’s chief customer-experience officer.

“We’re a public institution,” Circle said. “We want to make sure we do right.”

Librarians and security guards will enforce the changes and an existing “no sleeping” rule, she said.

Once the changes are implemented, the library can always review and amend them, Losinski said.

“I think what the library contributes to the homeless outweighs the practical concern for people who are traveling with a lot of belongings,” said Sara Loken, community-relations director for the Community Shelter Board.

But the woman who spoke for the homeless said shelters don’t allow people to leave their belongings when visiting the library.

“People in these situations are not going to take the time to measure their bags,” she said. “People on the street don’t have time to think like that.”