[Michlib-l] pajamas in the library

[Kimberly Schaaf]

While I agree that being subjected to a grown woman's fuzzy Tinkerbell pj pants is extremely annoying, unless your local authorities have some kind of official ban on this kind of thing that would back up a policy, I doubt you can do much about it.  If the pjs hit on one of the limitations to the First Amendment (obscenity, for example) or violates a law (nudity, for example) then that would back you up.  

Once you make a policy determining what people can or can't wear, it's a slippery slope of subjective interpretation that could crack open a whole slew of complaints from staff and patrons.  Who determines exactly what constitutes pajamas?  What about sweatpants?  What about workout clothes?  Banning leggings worn as pants would be perfectly fine with me, for example, but the difference between yoga pants and leggings can be very subtle.  Also, who can wear the pjs and who can't?  We give babies a free pass, but what about children?  What about a very mature 10 year old girl?  What about elderly women wearing a flimsy moo-moo in the summer?  Or men wearing extremely tight bike shorts?  Underwear and bras hang out everyday, and underwear is worse than pajamas, right?  While it is unfortunate that we must endure the sight of all this and more; I don't know if there's a clear cut policy solution to the social annoyance of fashion faux pas.
    
Kimberly Schaaf 
Reference and Adult Services Librarian 
Springfield Twp. Library 
12000 Davisburg Rd. 
Davisburg MI, 48350 
248-846-6550 


  

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lois Hartman" <lrhartman8 at yahoo.com>
To: "North Adams Library" <northadamslibrary at gmail.com>, "michlib-l (michlib-l at lists.mcls.org)" <michlib-l at mail.mcls.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 12:58:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Michlib-l] pajamas in the library




This is one of my pet peeves. I would like to hear see something on this also. 


Lois Hartman 
Watervliet District Library 





On Wednesday, November 20, 2013 12:51 PM, North Adams Library <northadamslibrary at gmail.com> wrote: 






Hello all, 

How do you address the issue of adults wearing their pjs to the library? Not for a special program, they just are out and about in their pjs. I searched online this weekend for policies dealing with this, but found nothing. 

If you have a policy that addresses this issue, I would appreciate hearing from you. 

Thank you! 

Phyllis 








------ 
Phyllis Rickard 
Director 
North Adams Community Memorial Library 
110 E. Main St., PO Box 248 
North Adams, MI 49262 
517-287-4426 
northadamslibrary at gmail.com 
http://www.northadamscml.michlibrary.org/ 



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