Violence in Libraries

     In 2004 Eva Martin, now a librarian at Fort Worth Public Library, co-authored an article examining crimes committed in and around libraries in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.  In this interview she recounts cases where a library provided not just the location of the crime, but also the alibi, the source of information for planning the crime, or a community focal point  for services that were used in the crime. 
 
     She recommends that librarians be aware of patron behavior and document anything strange.  She also refers to the advice of Carolyn Davidson Brewer on how to handle potentially violent situations at the library (see the article at the NTRLS website). 

    For more on this topic, see the 2004 article by Eva Martin and  Susan K. Burke. "Libraries in Communities: Expected and Unexpected Portrayals in State Case Law." Libraries & Culture 39, no. 4: 405-428.   (In Texas, you can retrieve the text of the article through the TEXShare databases.)