Library security measures considered in OISD campus audit

The Olney Community Library & Arts Center will be included in the safety audit that the school district has commissioned from security consultant Danny Defenbaugh, library director Lori Cox told the OCLAC board at its Aug. 16 meeting.

Mrs. Cox said she recently attended an active shooter drill conducted by Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck and realized the library may need to take measures to secure schoolchildren, patrons, and library employees.

“From weather to an active shooter - this has all crossed my mind,” she told the board. “There is just no place for us to be barricaded in.”

Chief Birbeck assessed the library last week and told her “We would fail the security audit … because we have doors that are open at all times,” she said.

“We need an entrance with keycards, and the public would have to buzz in just as they do at other buildings on campus,” she said. “ we … said we are trying to keep our kids safe, surely people would understand that.”

Ms. Cox also said the library may consider closing early during the winter months because its large plate glass windows turn the library into “a fishbowl” at night.

“[The librarian] can’t see out but everybody can see in. I don’t want to close at 5:30 or 5 [p.m.] I think that’s too early but again, I don’t know what the answer is,” she said. “We need to think of creative ways to protect kids and whoever walks in the door.”