would you leave dirty nappies in a library?

[starlover]

kind of following on from the restaurant thread!

My mum works in our local library and they have a baby jiggle and rhyme time on a friday morning.

Due to persistent requests they got a changing mat so that babies could be changed if necessary and people have now started LEAVING their dirty nappies beside it! for library staff to remove and bin....

I was when I heard it

paolosgirl - wasn't wanting to cast any aspertions on managment skills - goodness knows the media and everyone else does that enough. More the environment. I love libraries - except for the fines I just don't seem to be able to avoid runing up - still, I see that as my contribution to the service!

Can the liabary provide free nappy bags (has this been suggested before? sorry if so). You can buy a box of nappy bags for £1.00. A £1.00 well spent IMO.

I do think if you specifically invite parents and babies in, you need to accommodate them. They may not come back otherwise!

The library is only going half way by providing a changing mat. A notice asking parents to dispose of dirty nappies themselves next to plus a box of free nappy bags should do the trick hopefully?

I'm going to wade in here with my facilities managers hat on
leaving used nappies on the floor of a library is a no no.
However just providing a bin is not that simple as others have said. The bottom line here is that local authorities are charged to provide services with a finite pot of your money.
Providing changing facilities for babies in one library is very low on their list of priorities and costs money, money that has to come from the pot, so something else has to not be provided to pay for it.
So the library can put on events that include users but only to a point. It may be that it is not possible to put changing facilities in the library or that there is no budget to do the work this year, but of all the people who use the library how many are parents who are not able to take their nappies home. The library manager has to decide where to spend the very small pot of money to provide the best service for the majority of service users, I'll bet that new books furniture and other primary services have been on the waiting list much longer than changing facilities, and that changing facilities are on the list, just not at the top.
In an Ideal world this wouldnt be an issue as there would be loads of money to pay for everything each set of users wants. In the real world to keep your council tax bills down decisions are made over which of the primary services can be kept running without people rioting over the costs.
I strongly feel that if you are not happy with how the money is spent you should be involved in local politics

ok, any good asking the group for a small voluntary contribution towards the cost of providing nappy bags? or just take the odd £1.00 from petty cash?

I'm sorry but I think it's disgusting. I don't know what goes through peoples minds - if anything. How can someone think it's okay not to clean up their children's bodily waste when they are out? And that it's okay to leave it to someone else. Would these be the same people who throw litter on the street if a bin wasn't available? The same people who throw litter out of cars when travelling because 'someone gets paid to clean the street' or just don't care. I once found a used disposable nappy in a shopping trolley in Morrisons. In a trolley that was going to be used for food!!! How about people taking responsibility for themselves and their families? and not thinking everybody else is there to tidy up after them. As the countryside code says - take your litter home with you.

just close all the libraries and have done with it!

:o, donnie

or ask for voluntary contribs from the jiggle sesson... what you can afford..
that would be quite good, unwaged people can give 10p or whatever, and people who have a bit more money can give 2.50 or something, so that at least part of this bin can be paid for.. maybe surestart can help pay the rest if the library finacnes are tight (as i knwo they are)
this would be a million times better than giving a few books in a bag to mothers of 7 month old babies and expcet a lifetime of reading habits to grow from that.

provide the mothers a place to go/hang out for an hour or so and take the little one, pay as much as you can afford (Provide adult chairs so mum can feed the little one or sibling- see my other thread) and do the jiggle thing
change nappies and have some sort of clear up bin for wipes/nappies and hurrah, everyone happy!!

Vote oops!!

Now come on then, where's the problem with that?

It's the jiggling oops.

Just doesn't grab me.

Crikey, I feel honoured at my library - we have baby changing facilities! They are in a seperate room with bins etc.
I take ds to jiggle and whatever its called, but it only lasts for half an hour and have never had to change him.
If I did need to and there were no bins, I would certainly not leave a smelly nappy behind!

do you think i should go into politics or events management.....hmmmm

i know, people think my job is pretty easy, but i do know that sometimes a breath of fresh air is what it takes to solve a few problems, not a "we have to do it this way " approach...
,ducks, expecting large books and diaries to come flinging this way...sorry, couldn't think what item would be integral to event managing excepot a diary>

oh, i liked to be grabbed and jiggled, caligula...
that's what got me in this mess in the first place tho'

ok, mumforfirsttimeetc....let's come round to yours!

you see i use my library for all sorts and am beginning to feel like a renegade tbh.

I think as well people aren't criticising the public sector for lack of finances or even ability, but pointing out that there simply isn't as much incentive to meet end-user needs as in the commercial world, because there is no reward if you do, for all the reasons nooka outlines

You are all welcome oops!

and i do know how hard it is when you are in a middle management type job that seems to have poo thrown at you from both sides (here quite literally), but there HAS to be some answer to the problem.

If you want people to use the library, especially children, then you have to rpovide facilities for them.... if your budget within the library can't stretch to providing certtain things, then think who can.....
surestart it exactly the sort of organisation who wants to get women and their children out and about and in libraries, connecting with each other and meeting up and providing the children with an appreciation of books etc....

grrrr, i knopw it sounds too simple, can somebody tell me why this wouldn't work?
bin is part funded by contributions and part funded by another organisation who is trying to supprt mothers and babies too?

Of course if there are regular sessions in the library, then that's usually what happens. Partnership working is THE big buzzword in local authority/NHS environments at the moment, so I would guess that if the library is running a daily session for kids, then they would try and provide for nappy bins as far as possible.

However, the orginal post referred to a once a week sessions. In this case, the budget running that small branch library probably doesn't stretch to operating a nappy bin emptying contract for the - what - 3/5 dirty nappies they may get each session (based on approx 45 mins, with 15-20 people using it.

oops, not saying that wouldn't work, but you asked for a few buts, so here goes: Surestarts aren't exactly overflowing with funds, and most of it is tied up in nationally set initiatives (like bags of fairly useless books!). Also there are usually differences between helping with an initial cost (providing a bin) and long term costs (paying for the contractor to take away said bin). Not saying that things are unsolvable, and I know what you mean about the limitations of the "we have to do it this way " approach. I think that if the changing mat has to be requested, and comes with a box of nappy bags if required along with a polite please take your nappy home, that should sort the problem out.

so maybe surestart have a roving nappy bin??

or they can help with some of the support,
or maybe they can provide another session inpartnership with the library and do 2-3 afternoons a week.
getting mothers out and meeting one another so they can support each other and helping children to appreciate the library...

and providing some sort of safe way to dela with the ineviatble...why can't people think round things?

not the librarians of course, who are IME fantastic people (have a friend who is a uni librarian), but the management/organisers etc.

what i see alot of is the managements having ill thought out ideas and then the poor old work face peole having to carry out the half thought thru' policies with no extra incentive.
i feel sorry for star lovers mum...but accpet that people don't behave as well as we would like all the time...so a pragmatic approach involving (the buzz word) partnership may be the way to go...not just with her place, with all of the libraries etc

but money in itself isn't really the issue...
could mothercare sponser a bin?
or charlie and lola's publisher sponser a bin?

why has nobody else tried to think around this?
just to accpet (in a computer say no voice) there isn't the money?

or maybe now coke company is getting the squeeze in schools, they could sponser a bin (joke!!!!)

anyway, off to drink coffee in starbucke, read thgaurdian and rescue my dh form the pushchair of doom.....today was a bad morning with the littlies and dh not quite up to it this am!

is there a toilet in the library?if there is they could just put a bin in there to put the nappies in. I'm sure they already would have someone who collects rubbish, so that wouldn't make a difference.

haven't read this but if local councils are running events for children they are fully expected to make venues Family Friendly - that includes having a changing mat and bin for nappies if they run events for babies.

if i am using disposables and have to change dd3 when out and about, if there isnt a bin available to dispose of the nappy then i wrap it up and chuck it in my bag or under the buggy and dispose of it at home.

Many of the library buildings in my borough are Victorian - its expensive and logistically difficult for them just to provide disabled facilities, never mind baby changing - I think some of them don't even have toilets.

oops I have good news for you :)

In my borough three new local council service centres are being built. They combine council services with leisure services like swimming pools, gyms with creche facilities and libraries all under the same roof. Creche facilitis = nappy bins for library users = job done!

The service centres are part of the council's modernisation programme to make services more accessible to the public - and user friendly. Government initiative of course. So Tony Blair beat you to it :) I'd have voted for you, anyway!