Officials Worry : ‘Latchkey Children’ a Problem at Libraries

Every day, hundreds of young children spend their afternoons unattended at public libraries throughout the city waiting for their parents to return from work, leisure activities or errands, according to a study released by the Los Angeles Public Library this week.

The survey of children’s librarians at 57 of the Los Angeles Public Library’s 62 branches estimated that during the first week of June, 1,650 “latchkey children” were dropped off at city libraries and told to wait there until parents came to pick them up, said Priscilla Moxom, the library’s coordinator of children’s services.

The study was timed to coincide with one done by the Los Angeles County Public Library system. The county system estimated that 300 children are routinely left at its 92 branch libraries for extended periods on an average weekday.

Source of Concern

The city library’s survey found that latchkey children were a consistent source of concern at 40 of the 57 branches that responded.

The term “latchkey children” was coined in recent years by experts studying the problem of unsupervised children, because many of the youngsters carry keys to get into their homes when their parents are away.

Officials representing the city and county libraries and the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System, which includes libraries in several incorporated cities such as Glendale and Burbank, met privately Friday in Los Angeles to discuss the problem.

Before the meeting, Moxom said she believes that changes in the social and family structure are responsible for the large number of latchkey children in libraries.

Not the Right Place

“If we’re getting into another baby boom, which seems to be the expectation, and if single-parent households increase, it is likely that there will be more children who are unsupervised after school who may fall into the category of library users,” she said.

Moxom said that even though parents may have good intentions, libraries do not always provide the outlets that youngsters need.

“Maybe they (parents) feel that it’s a more (enriching) environment than to have the child at home watching the television set,” she said. “They may see it as a kind of adjunct to their (children’s) development and education, without realizing that perhaps they do get tired if they’re coming straight from school.

“They have been confined and programmed for the entire day,” Moxom added. “If they’re sent to the library, they find it’s just one more place to be cooped up.”

Some Ejected

Often, such children are disruptive and have to be removed from the facilities. That puts them out on the street, she said.

Library officials are unsure exactly how the studies will be used, Moxom said, although she expects the city library will develop a policy for dealing with latchkey children and their parents.

Maria Salvadore, coordinator of children’s services for the Washington, D.C., public library system, agreed in a telephone interview that libraries are poor substitutes for day-care centers.

“The kids have an enormous amount of energy that has to be spent,” she said Friday. “The library is not always the most appropriate place to release that energy.”

Salvadore said most latchkey children come from poor families unable to afford day-care supervision.

At the Los Angeles Public Library’s Loyola Village branch, children’s librarian Chellie Schwartzman must find interesting ways for these youngsters to occupy their time.

“We do have games that are available and we have film programs once a month,” she said Friday. “But we are a busy branch and as the only children’s librarian I need to be available to the children who have assignments (from school). So there’s the conflict.”

Although she knows of no cases where children have been kidnaped or harassed, Schwartzman said she worries about the children’s safety while they are at the library.

“Maybe the solution would be to find better child-care facilities,” she said. “I guess that’s really a growing problem. (Child care) is available; the question is whether it’s affordable.”