Public libraries: Poor hygiene might get you tossed

Schaumburg Township District Library adds 'offensive bodily odors' to its prohibitions

By John Keilman, April 13, 2009

Patrons of the Schaumburg Township District Library have never been allowed to bring in the noise. Now they can't bring in the funk.

The library recently added "offensive bodily odors" to its list of prohibitions, joining more traditional no-nos such as running, rowdiness or toting an uncovered beverage.

Director Stephanie Sarnoff said the aroma would have to be so overpowering that it interfered with others' use of the facility. And while the policy stemmed from complaints about an apparently homeless person, Sarnoff said it would apply just as much to an overuse of perfume as an underuse of soap.

"People who use libraries are usually very understanding about the foibles of others," she said. "So when one or more library users complain that another person's hygiene is of such poor quality that it is prohibiting them from pursuing what they want to do, their problem becomes our problem."

Though it's a new issue for the Schaumburg library, other book lenders around the Chicago area have long imposed such bans. They say they must balance their mission of welcoming all segments of society with the need to maintain an orderly building.

Advocates for the homeless, though, say it's not easy for a person living on the street to stay clean. Shelters can be full or far away, and places with sinks or showers are often unwilling to let the destitute use them.

"I really can't think of any cases where I've met someone who says, 'I like the fact that I smell,' " said Todd Stull, director of the HOPE Center in Palatine. "It really is a fact of not enough money and not enough places willing to help them stay clean. They sort of become these victims of circumstance."

Public libraries are bustling these days, thanks in part to the swelling ranks of the jobless, but they have always been a haven for people with nowhere else to go. In some towns, that includes a fair number of people with unpleasant hygiene.

Jim Johnston, director of the Joliet Public Library, said some visitors have reeked so mightily that they have literally prompted others to vomit. Less dramatic cases can still interfere with someone's right to use the library in peace, he said, and such patrons are told to leave until they clean up.

"We still try to be humane about it," he said. "The citizens have a right to use the library. That doesn't really depend on their economic status. But what you cannot do is keep someone else from using and enjoying the place."

Unpleasant odors were not a major concern at the Aurora Public Library until recently, when a rearranging of the furniture created a pod of comfy chairs around the magazines and newspapers.

"It has caused those patrons who had a problem with body odor to be congregating in groups," director Eva Luckinbill said.

The library's code of conduct is silent on the issue of hygiene, and Luckinbill said she might like to have an explicit guideline to which she could refer a quarrelsome patron. But she is conflicted about it.

She takes pride in the library's openness to all and has rejected calls from nearby businesses to bar the homeless from her building. But she said a minimal level of hygiene and decorum is not too much to ask, noting that some residents of a nearby shelter are model library patrons—quiet, respectful and tidily kept.

"As long as they obey the library code-of-conduct guidelines, we don't judge," she said.

When someone feels as though he is being judged, though, it can sting even years later. Antoine Smith, 25, who said he spent time on the streets after being kicked out of his home as a teenager, still recalls the humiliation of being told to leave the Legler branch of the Chicago Public Library.

"It's like people just picking on you for no reason," Smith said. "Like you're just there and they can do whatever they want. They don't care if you're human."

Aside from patrons with offensive hygiene, Chicago's public libraries ban those who carry more than two bags or who try to bathe, shave or wash their clothes on the premises. But spokeswoman Ruth Lednicer said those policies were not aimed at transients; the bag guideline, for instance, is meant to keep the aisles clear and has been invoked when out-of-town visitors bring in suitcases, she said.

The comparatively prosperous village of Schaumburg does not face such overt issues of homelessness. Some frequent visitors said they have never noticed a problem.

"I honestly think [the ban] is building on stereotypes, that we have to keep them away from the normal citizens," said Sittie Jackson, 27.

But Sarnoff, who said no one has gotten an odor warning since the policy was enacted in February, maintained that a librarian must balance everyone's rights. That extends far beyond olfactory matters.

The library will next address the propriety of sleeping amid the stacks (many libraries already ban extended snoozing). The staff also has had to tell a group that occasionally prayed in a stairwell that it would have to confine its worship to meeting rooms for safety reasons.

Even so, Sarnoff said, such issues are still relatively minor in a library that sees more than 1 million patrons a year.

"A bigger problem," she said, "is wheelie shoes."