Criminal checks

The Fayetteville, Arkansas Public Library has a problem. For the last several months, the staff has been working on a policy that will protect members of the public, especially children, from predators while they’re at the library. How could anyone object to that?

Well, it depends on how you do things. The Northwest Arkansas News reports on a brouhaha over background checks for volunteers. Here’s the story.

First, the library ran unannounced criminal background checks on employees. The employees learned of the checks after the fact at a staff meeting.

Then, a rumor surfaced that the library was going to run criminal background checks on all of the few hundred library volunteers. In fact, no decision or recommendation had been made on that issue, but the combination of unannounced criminal checks on staff and possible background checks on volunteers sparked a number of volunteer resignations and letters to the Executive Director of the library and to the library board.

As a purely logical matter, checking out staff and volunteers at a place where children and other vulnerable people congregate seems like a good idea. So where did things go wrong? Here are some lessons you can learn from the Fayetteville library experience.

Lesson: […]