this is a law with little hope of being enforced, unless they plan to expand their police force ten fold. i doubt it. i'd kind of like to know where that child's parents were, that they lost sight of their 6 year-old.

when mine were that age, they weren't allowed to just go roaming free, anywhere, they had to be within viewing range of me or my wife. as well, the library staff frowned on the practice of parents using the library as a free baby sitting service.

In Hillary's parlance, "It Takes a Village."

Some people seem to think that there is a solution to every problem that involves process.  Not always.  Sometimes people simply have to get with the program and do their job...parents, I mean...and other adults with a head on their shoulders.

Librarians struggle constantly to convince parents and caregivers that  public libraries are not child care centers, that they can't provide free afterschool care, that they are not safe places for unattended children anymore than a shopping mall or a train station would be.  Too many parents leave their preschoolers in the children's section while they use another part of the library.  I have had to help many children "find mommy or daddy." Public librarians are used to helping young children left alone at the library after closing hours.

I know the library to which the article refers (including the fact that it is not "the" library but the main branch of the library), indeed I have been in the room pictured in the NYT article. So yes, I do know New Bedford - including its politics (about which my ex keeps me informed).

The mayor's proposal is a crock. It's unenforceable. It's ridiculously overbroad. It's pandering. It's an attempt to take political advantage of a tragedy, an attempt that will feed on itself as others try to show that they are even more concerned about "the safety of the children" than the next politico until it generates legislation so sweeping that it will get struck down by the courts - but no one now making the noise will care because the political points will already have been scored.

It's inane.

I'm covering the reference desk at a college library as I write this, and I cannot imagine having to supervise a policy like this.  My old private university (GW in DC) had a ID policy, but Special Collections and gov't docs were open to the public.  
I cannot however see this working at a public library, academic or state/community sponsored.  

But no public library I work in could pull staff aside to examine library cards for every patron.  It's hard enough just to keep the public service desks staffed!

There used to be some wonderfully isolated areas in the stacks of the University Library where I worked 31 years ago.  But they managed security by renovating the isolation away -- now things are more open.  And cameras cover the less trafficed areas.

I agree that it is terrible that there was a sexual assault at that library.  And like you think they should first beef up security.  But it seems to me that even if that ordinance passes and they ask patrons for library cards, they'd still have to beef up security at that library.

In other words, a town ripe for Left-Behind-by-the-New-Economy pols eager to get some coverage while glomming the ideas (and type of ideas) glamourized by Faux Noise and the Republicans - like this one.  Want another?  Look at Hazelton, PA and the unconstitutional anti-immigrant ordinance they used to get some coverage for something other than being a run-down coal town and hometown of Princess Judi.

And, as to there being a cop available in New Bedford?  Last time I was there, it was not a problem to find one.  A number of us were going fishing and had to meet the boat we'd chartered at the docks well before sunrise.  There was a cop, in his car, parked across from a HoneyDew (a NE chain of donut shops) near the waterfront.  He was in that deep snore where your head flops back and jaw hangs open to the point one might think your neck is broken.  We let him be.

They shouldn't be allowed to run around without someone watching over them at least until they are 9 or 10 or so, where they are old enough to have more of a clue about the world.

That being said, the places where children are allowed in libraries should be in the public view. No back rooms or nooks and crannies should be available to them.

Its efficacy depends on the dubious assumption that sex offenders won't show ID.

He also says all patrons should be required to show a picture ID and valid library card before entering the library.

The names would presumably be checked against the RSO database before the library card is issued and obviously a Level 3 Offender on the RSO database would not get a library card.

Then, in order to prevent the scenario where an RSO might steal a valid library card and use it to enter a library, both a library card and a supporting ID card would be required for entry.

That said, as unfortunate and as unimaginable as whole situation is, and as personally guilty and horrible as the boy's mom must feel, we all, as parents, need to take absolute responsibility for protecting our children.