Safe Child Policy

School has started and families are solidifying their school year schedules, including making plans for library visits. We are always delighted to have children in the library, as long as they are supervised appropriately. For the littlest ones, this means that a parent or caretaker must be actively attending to the child at all times. Here is our Safe Child Policy:

The Cook Memorial Public Library District is dedicated to providing a warm, welcoming, and safe environment for people of all ages.  In order to accomplish this, the Library relies on parents and caregivers to monitor and supervise their children’s activities and whereabouts. Our library staff is here to serve the information needs of our patrons.  Staff members have many duties to perform and cannot monitor the whereabouts of unsupervised children or be responsible for children who are demonstrating inappropriate behavior. Parents should not view the library as an alternative to day care or after-school programs.  Parents, guardians and caregivers should be aware that the library is a public building open to all individuals.   Parents or guardians, not the Library or its staff, are responsible for their children. The Board of Trustees has adopted this Safe Child Policy to minimize the safety risks to children in the library, and to help staff in dealing with disruptive or unattended children.

Article I General Guidelines for Children Using the Library
Children 6 & Under Must be accompanied and attended to at all times by a parent, guardian or other responsible person fourteen (14) years of age or older who is taking an active role in attending to the child.  For children who are attending programs at which parent attendance is not required, the parent/caregiver must remain in the building and immediately join the child at the conclusion of the program.

Children 7-9 May use the library with a parent or guardian with them in the building.  For children who are attending programs at which parent attendance is not required, the parent/caregiver must remain in the building.

Children 10-14 May use the library on their own.  However, they are still legally the responsibility of their parents or guardians and must have an emergency contact available.  If a child of this age group is not able to leave the library without an adult, the parent or guardian must be able to pick up the child if he/she is asked to leave.

Young People 15-17 Treated as adult users. However, they are still legally the responsibility of their parents and must have an emergency contact available.

Article II Unattended Children 9 Years or Younger During Library Hours When a child 9 years or younger appears to be lost or unattended, library staff will immediately try to locate the parents or responsible adult.   If the parents or responsible adult cannot be located within 10 minutes, staff is authorized to call police.

Article III Unattended Children 14 years or Younger after Closing Time Staff is authorized to call police ten minutes after closing if unattended children fourteen (14) years of age and under are not picked up after the Library has closed.

Article IV Inappropriate Behavior

Disruptive children are subject to the same rules as adult patrons of the library which are detailed in the Use of the Library policy adopted by the Board of Library Trustees. Any staff member witnessing willfully disruptive behavior or responding to a complaint from another patron of such behavior is empowered to eject the patron or group of patrons causing the disruption for the rest of the day.  Staff will allow children 14 years of age and under to remain in the library under staff supervision until a parent or responsible adult can be notified. Repeat instances of disruptive behaviour will result in loss of library privileges for a specific amount of time.

 Adopted: 07/19/11

Fax Service Now Available

The public scanners at both our Cook Park and Aspen Drive locations now have outgoing faxing capabilities. Here’s the scoop:

Facts:

• Charge for faxing is $1.00 per page, to be paid in cash. You can include a cover page if you wish, but it will cost an additional $1.00.
• The coin box will take one and five dollar bills as well as coins.
• The fax machine can scan the front and back of a page in one sweep. Each side counts as a faxed page.
• It can scan up to 40 pages (or 20 front and back)
• It is not possible to receive faxes at the library.

How to:

• Start by touching “Scan to Fax” on the scanner’s screen.
• Place pages to be faxed in the feeder upside down, with the writing facing the wall.
• When entering a fax number, start with the area code. It is not necessary to dial “1”.

Please visit the Reference Desk at either library if you require assistance.

Suggest a Purchase Tips

A patron asked, “Are there limits to what I can request on the library’s Suggest a Purchase form?”

Great question! The answer is yes, and it’s helpful to know them so you can avoid submitting requests that can’t be considered. Jennifer Plohr, Collection Development Manager, offers these helpful tips:

Purchase suggestions do not apply to the following:

• TV series – if we have earlier seasons, we will purchase new seasons as they are released.
• New feature films – we will purchase these when they are released on DVD and Blu-ray.
• Books by bestselling authors – we buy these automatically.
  In all of these cases, in order to be fair to everyone, we will begin accepting holds on the items as soon as they appear in our catalog.

Also, if a book hasn’t been published yet, please wait until its publication date is less than three months away to request it. And, if you want an item that is more than a year old, please request it through LINKin or Interlibrary Loan instead.

Want to know more about how the library decides which materials to purchase? See our Collection Development Policy.

Coming Soon: Our Fall 2012 Events

Hope you have been able to take advantage of some of our programs and events this summer! We are now proud to announce the line-up for Fall 2012. Our adult programs this time will include special features such as a collaboration with High School District 128 that will bring a series of outstanding chefs to our community. Our popular Authors Out Loud series kicks off on September 13th with lunch with Julia Child biographer Bob Spitz (Dearie) at noon at the Sullivan Center in Vernon Hills. As usual, we will offer an extensive slate of computer classes. And this time our genealogy offerings will also include some computer classes, as well as individual research time in the computer lab. The first day to sign up for computer classes is Saturday, September 9. See the entire line-up of adult programs at Cook Park and Aspen, including business and job-hunting, Authors Out Loud, genealogy and computer classes.

Teen programs will include a “Zombies Attack” After Hours event at Cook Park, the return of the Mother-Daughter Book Club, and a bigger and better than ever Epic Quest for Teen Read Week.

Kids this fall will be able to participate in a “Reading is Delicious” fall book club with many tasty events. Other book clubs include one for middle schoolers and one just for guys. Principals from local schools will visit to read aloud, storytimes and crafts will be available, and the Design a Bookmark contest will be back. Special events include a Star Wars Read Day and the always exciting Touch the Trucks. There will be programs just for Tweens, who are also welcome to attend the Homework Café. We will also host a preschool and childcare fair, as well as programs for adults on early literacy, brain development and homework help. See the entire line-up.

View a calendar with all the events for all ages and links to register.