Quit Peepin' in the Library, Jerkoff

By Alicia Dorr in News on Nov 3, 2006 5:30PM

We love the Harold Washington Library, but we have to admit that there have been times walking through the stacks when we have been a little ... creeped out. You know, you're taking town your copy of Sade's Justine, and you see an eye peeping out from the other side of the stack. Eeeh. It's fiction, dude.

Well, you may or may not be surprised that there are reports of indecent acts, sexual crimes or violence in the metropolitan and suburban libraries - and they aren't rare. The big controversy is whether or not library security does anything about it. One woman claimed that they didn't even jump to call the police when she saw a man with his hands down his pants in the Naperville's Nichols Library computer lab.

The idea that the library system turns its head in instances like this is as disturbing as the thought that Chicago doesn't make crime lists because data isn't available, but we still think that it might be a little harsh on the libraries. There are reports of these things happening, at least in the downtown libraries, in police records and newspaper blotters.

We hope that the worst thing that happens to you in the library isn't even as bad as the eyeball in the stacks - more like the security guard gruffly asking you to wake up, you're drooling on the desk. If something does happen, though, say something. The security guard, the police, and the public can't do anything about it unless people report that something happened, even if it didn't happen directly to you. We know we live in a city that has embraced public urination, but, seriously, this is our book time you're talking about here. Is nothing sacred?

Image via utexas.edu