An update

Remember Brenda Biesterfeld, the library aide who was supposedly fired for tipping police to a paedophile looking at pornographic images of children in the library? This is the Tulare County (California) Library's side:

'Ms. Biesterfeld received an evaluation following three months of her employment and received an overall rating of 5 on a scale of 10. Goals for improvement included the proper completion of the cash report, proper documentation of the collection of fines, the importance of seeking clarification of policies and procedures, developing clerical skills, working on assigned tasks and keeping her supervisors informed of all problems and community complaints. Ms. Biesterfeld failed to improve...'

'Regarding the specific incident... Ms. Biesterfeld did not tell her supervisors that the patron was accessing child pornography, and thereafter she neglected to notify anyone in management of the events which transpired, including the suspect's arrest until after they had occurred and failed to advise that the library's computer had been seized... There were additional performance deficiencies and policy violations that were discovered which led to her release.'

Thanks to Birdie from LISNews for the quotes and links.

Stories discussing the updated details of the firing can be seen at KMPH and the Fresno Bee.

Although it sounds like there was just cause for her termination, what she did in tipping off the police was still the right thing to do.

But she did the right thing

Sometimes you can't just sit back and catalogue or classify...sometimes you have to take action. One librarian did--and lost her job over it.

California Librarian Fired for Reporting Man Viewing Child Porn

Lindsay Librarian Fired for Reporting Man Viewing Child Porn

The supervisor told her to make a note on the man’s library account and tell him to stop looking at the pictures. Biesterfeld felt that the authorities needed to be alerted, so she called the police anyway. When police did get involved, they found thousands of images of child pornography. 39-year-old Donnie Chrisler was arrested, and a day and a half later; Biesterfeld was out of a job.

There's a time when our desire to protect the privacy of our patrons has to submit to the greater good. And whilst that greater good is sometimes hard to define, I think most of us agree that protecting children from exploitation and possible abuse is more important that anyone's anonymity as a library patron surfing the net.

You never know about that mild-mannered library assistant in your department

Man who shot cop in '69 allowed to pay $250,000 to police fund

For about three decades, Pannell raised a family and worked as a research library assistant near Toronto under the alias of Gary Freeman. He had been fighting extradition since 2004. A graying Pannell, now 58, wore a hearing aid in each ear as Circuit Judge Daniel Darcy placed him on 2 years' probation in addition to imposing 30 days in jail. An attempted murder charge was dismissed.

The police officer shot did not die, but lost much of the use of an arm and had to retire early from the force. The officer himself was one of the people who came up with the idea of a payment into the fund as part of an agreement to lighten the sentence, figuring nothing would be served by the man spending a lot of time in jail. Joseph Pannell has already served over six years in custody in Canada, where he fled to after the crime, and the US. The fund helps support families of officers who are severely wounded in the line of duty, including scholarships for their children. It is the largest payment ever made to the fund.