Posted by
GoGate
19 yrs ago
Just wanted to pass on a recent experience...Despite the presence of a children's section, well-behaving children are not welcome at the Stanley Library.
My 3 year old child, who was speaking in a quiet voice while containing her excitement to check out new books, was agressively "shushed" by a library employee. The woman grabbed my child's shoulder so firmly and made such an angry face at her that she made my child cry. All of this incited an army of sushers to emerge, seemingly to intimidate us to leave.
It worked - we left and will not go back. I don't know why they even bother to have a children's section if they are so intolerant of well-behaving children.
Does anyone know of a library that welcomes children, besides the school libraries? We enjoy visiting libraries as a family, but don't know where to go.
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suze
19 yrs ago
Central Library in Victoria Park I find is very tolerant of children. Has playrooms and great reading areas. My kids and I go often.
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Gee GoGate, how awful for you. As the mother of a 3yo bookaholic daughter, I really feed for you. Believe there is a great library in Causeway Bay. Sorry no more details. Saikunga, yep, I'm from Melbourne and very similar deal there with the libraries - a lovely, happy meeting point where we all can freely exchange stories - the verbal kind. A cultural thing I guess.
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Todge
19 yrs ago
If someone touched my child in that manner ... You should report the staffer and demand some kind of apology. Maybe HK libraries should come into the 21st century.
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HK libraries double as study centres for students and adult learners who are unable to study at home, i.e. space, noise, etc. problems. Until everyone can live in a decent place - when greedy developers build good homes at reasonable prices (or when hell freezes over) - HK libraries won't change.
But you should try, as others have suggested, Central Library in Causeway Bay. It is (relatively) more child-friendly than other ones. It also has a toy library:
http://www.hkpl.gov.hk/english/aboutus/aboutus_hkcl/aboutus_hkcl_ser/aboutus_hkcl_ser_10.html
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Yah, very sorry. Our local libraries in my USA hometown are happy places with story times, puzzles, mmovies, kids events, computers for kids to use. They say a child who develops the habit of going to the library will be an adult who uses the library. Too bad it seems the Stanley librarians are so MYOPIC ( a word I'm sure I learned through being an avid reader?)!! There is also a two word term I learned in real life to describe this. The first word has four letters, begins with A, ends with L, and the second word is "retentive."
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Next time call 999 and make a police report. This is common assault and nobody has the right to handle a child in this manner.
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I agree. Don't let it go, even if it's been a few days and you and your daughter are over the shock. Hong Kong is a place where customer complaints are dealt with and staff are expected to behave professionally. And the attitude towards children is generally pretty indulgent. I'm sure the people in charge at Stanley Library will be just as shocked as you are.
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GoGate, forgot to mention the Helena May on Garden Road. It has a wonderful children's library.
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Recently, I have also experienced incident like this with my little kid at Ma On Shan. This time was the security guard and her angry really scared my little one who is only about one and a half. I think you send them your opinion and ask them to improve their "ways of management". I didn't tell the security guard off because I know she was only told what to do by the management staff.
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