HOW WE SEE IT: Common Sense Lost On Some Library Patrons

Among those things your mother taught you (or at least should have taught you) is that you don’t go tromping through someone else’s house with bare feet and wet clothes. It’s rude, it’s messy and it’s potentially dangerous.

One of the things common sense should tell us is that you also don’t go tromping through public places in the same condition, and for the same reasons. While most of us get the first part, there are apparently some of us who don’t get the second part.

So, the folks at the Rogers Public Library had to create a dress code to, believe it or not, let folks know they can’t come into the building barefoot or in wet bathing suits.

This seems to us like one of those unnecessary and unintentionally funny warning labels pasted onto consumer products like “may irritate eyes” on a can of pepper spray or “do not use in the shower” on an electric hair dryer. Are these really things that require reminders?

Apparently so. Since the Rogers Aquatic Park opened earlier this summer, the folks at the library, which is not far away, have noticed a surge in the number of patrons coming in wearing sopping wet bathing suits. Most of the damp ones are children, but that doesn’t mean they’re not making the floors wet, soaking the furniture and potentially damaging the books on the shelves.

The library’s staff says a dress code was never introduced before now because no one saw the need. But with the new water park close by, things have changed.

“We aren’t trying to be judgmental about how people dress,” said Judy Casey, library director.

The folks at the Springdale Library can relate. They’ve also had to address the wet bathing suit issue because the Springdale Aquatic Center is just a few blocks south.

Libraries in Bentonville and Fayetteville don’t specifically address wet clothing, but both have policies in place to address other behaviors that might cause problems for other patrons. Cellphones, for instance, or unattended children.

While some might assume common sense would kick in and alert a patron to the fact a loud phone conversation would disturb others, that’s not always not the case. And what person with children would need to be reminded to make sure the kids behave around others? Sadly, some do.

And that goes back to those silly labels that might not be so silly after all. If someone feels the need to print “keep out of reach of children” on a butcher’s knife, then a written policy about dripping water on a tile floor in a public building doesn’t sound unnecessary after all.

So, give the folks at your local library a break. Be courteous, be smart and be dry before you go browse the stacks. Keep your voice down and keep an eye on the kids. Just show some old fashioned common sense.

If you don’t know what that is, here’s a hint: If your mom wouldn’t approve, you probably shouldn’t do it in the first place. What better definition of common sense could there be?

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