Something we should all be aware of:
Just the other day, a friend of mine who works in a public library had to deal with a very disturbing situation. A young woman approached her asking to speak with my friend in private. The young woman told my friend that she had been in the somewhat secluded group study room and she noticed a male patron near to her. He had shorts on and his penis was sticking out the bottom of one of the legs. The woman left the room and called her boyfriend. She went back into the study room for whatever reason (possibly to retrieve her belongings) and saw that the male patron had not bothered to correct the situation.
The young woman told my friend that she felt uncomfortable approaching my friend's coworkers on the desk at the time (a man and an older woman) after the first incident. When she went back to the room and it happened again, she knew that it wasn't an accident like she first had hoped (like the guy had been scratching his leg or something). By this time my friend had come back to the desk, and the young woman approached her. While they were talking, my friend saw the guy come out of the group study room and start walking away. My friend confirmed that this had been the guy and left the young woman to intercept him. With my friend's library currently being under construction, the main set of stairs had been removed and my friend intercepted the offender while he was looking for these stairs. The guy asked my friend where the stairs were. She took the time while directing him out of the building to study what he looked like for future reference.
By now, I know you're screaming, "where's security?!?!" Well, this incident happened at a shift change, there are probably only two guards on duty at once and neither of them were on the floor.
After making sure that the young woman was safely escorted to her car, my friend did speak with the police about this incident, reported it and gave a description of the guy. So far, she has not heard anything further, but it has been only a couple of days since this happened.
The reason I'm writing this is because while we all think, would like to think anyway, that libraries are safe havens, crimes do happen in libraries. We need to be aware of what procedures are in place at the libraries we work at in case things like this happen. Talk with your supervisors, your local police department, any special agencies that deal with victims of crimes. Find out what the recommended practices are for situations and educate your coworkers. This girl may not have reported this crime at all if she hadn't seen my friend working the desk. My friend is not particularly young, but apparently looked approachable enough for this girl to speak with. Educate your patrons to immediately report things like this and other crimes so that your institution can deal with the problems. If you don't know that it's happening, you can't make it safer for patrons and employees alike.