Toronto Yorkwoods Library review: Do not expect staff are capable or willing to help whenever needed

The now hugely heated mass media coverage concerning the 2025 Miss Universe pageancy scandal in Thailand is not even a tip of a gangatic iceberg. Tons of people around the globe are suffering & being treated in similar & much much worse in the hands of powerful, controlling, authoritaive & much arrogant ''Directors'', ''Managers'' or other follow human beings with what have you other fancy titles not for minutes, not for hours, not for days, weeks or months but YEARS, MANY MANY YEARS!

Me personally have been voicing out for years-----complaining face to face on location, in writing via emails after emails, on the phone, & online posts like this regarding the many ill treatments, rudelessness, arrogance, incompentence, insensibilities, & so on relating to my on-going negative experiences & mistreatments since 2009 mainly at Yorkwoods Library & from concerning TPL Directors, Managers & Senior Branch Head

Being merely a financially, racially & socially marginalized small potato person, no one--------Toronto Public Library senior management, city councillors, Toronto City Hall, & many many other bureaucracy I have been voicing out to care to do anything. The media of course cares less as I am not someone being treated like Miss Mexico by Nawat outfront in front of the media around the world.

I fully understand why all these powerful & superficial & totally diplomatic city of Toronto management, mass media, politicians, & multiple relevant organizations & agencies I have contacted ignored my pledges & grievience appeals as I have no whatever potential social, political or other personal advantages that these people could gain by listening & helping to correct (absolutely hopeless!) or even review & examine my on-going experiences involving the one powerful bureaucratic Toronto Public Library & its even more arrogrant & incompentent senior managemant team relating to Yorkwoods Library.

If you are wondering what I was complaining & voicing out about for so many years, please look up my other posts at this site about Toronto Public Library/Yorkwoods Library & more will come surely for the rest of my time. I thank you for reading my post(s).

I received no respond whatsoever regarding my email communication below from Yorkwoods Library managers at the time : Ms MacFayden, Ms. Ewa Piatkowski & Barbara Tinsley, Area Manager.

''I witnessed a theft at about 7:30pm on July 28/14 on the 2/F, Yorkwood Library.

I reported it with your chatline (ref # 55593), gave info re where-about & a simple description of the person who I saw stealing a library headphone set from YWPC #522. I was informed that Yorkwood staff has been notified. The person was staying where he was until about 8pm.

I did not see any Yorkwood staff go near that person. There was a phone call for the 2/F staff a few minutes before that person walked away & left. When the person was leaving, I approached the 2 staff on the 2/F service desk informing them that the person was walking away. One staff simply said "it's OK", Etc. Both staff did not otherwise do anything whatsoever about the theft or the person.

Please explain why the 2 library staff acted as they were under the circumstance. Is that part of their responsibilities & work ethnics to prevent/avoid damages/loss of library (taxpayers') properties?

I feel that these staff people would probably pretend that nothing happened if they themselves had witnessed these crimes in their library where they work. They appeared surprised when I approached & exposed myself to them when the person stealing was walking away after their inaction. Guess they would not have imagined that the person who reported this was still there.

I also wonder why the security person was unavailable to respond. Please explain also.''

My email communication dated August 23, 2014 addressing to the Yorkwoods Library Service Manager at the time:

''Ms. MacFayden,

I learnt that you are back on Mon, Aug 25/14

I still want to comment on my original email on this matter dated July 29/14
& the response I received after 2 days

My points are:
1. Yes, I agree some of us bring our own head/ear phones to use in libraries. But to bring one that exactly the same model with same size & color is very difficult to avoid not being mistaken for stealing. The one pair I saw being taken in a sneeky way by someone even had the original orange tag attached, as with most of the library's headphones of this model.

2. Even with a physical heasdpohone count as claimed, it does not gurantee that it was not being stolen before or PC #522 happened to have 2 sets in that evening, which is not uncommon in this library.

3. The most important point is, from my years of regular use of this library, I feel that most staff are incompentent & very much evasive, if not relunctant, in receiving & acting on complaints/reports of concerns from patrons. In this case, the 2 staff involved did not even show adequate knowledge of the georgraphy of the place where they work. None of them was seen going anywhere close to the location which I gave regarding the whereabout of the alleged thief. One simply told me she could not find him, etc. As I was witnessing, they were not even tried. Of couse, like I mentioned already, they were not aware that I was watching how the handled this report to begin with. To me, they simply avoided encountering the thief for whatever reasons.

Looking forward to your response.''

I received a seemingly an admit nothing wrong, PR type political email response dated August 28, 2014 from Gail MacFayden:

''Hi (private)

Thank you for taking the time to make these comments. We appreciate you taking your concerns directly to library staff and allowing us to work through these issues.

Toronto Public Library works to create a safe and welcoming space for all our customers. We balance the needs for monitoring resources with the rights of customers to work independently, without intrusion from library staff.

It seems that all the headphones are accounted for. Library staff have checked to make sure that all the headphones have been secured to the computers.

We want everyone to have a positive experience at the library and hope your next visit is a great one.

Thanks.''

Then no reply whatsoever from Gail MacFayden for my follow-up email elaboration dated August 29, 2014

''Ms. MacFayden,

This time I went to 2 staff telling them that the thief was leaving after they failed to locate & act, if you have reviewed my email with care.

I have also reported to Yorkwood staff about 10 times in the past 3-4 years about some people watching porns on library PCs. My last report of this nature was to the Senior Branch Head, Nicole, on or around Aug 14, 2014. Half the time I did not witness any action from staff. 2 times, the person was spoken to by staff. Yet all these people were allowed to remain & they keep returning to this library & continue their pron fun on library PCs.

The first report I made was after a child had departed from a PC on 2/F which was showing explicit adult porns. There were traces of suspected semen, perhaps the male child had very much enjoyed what he was watching & got too excited. I asked the staff if she could find out the library card number & do something about this. She simply turned off this PC & said they could not find out the library card information.

Moreover, I spoke to staff concerning excessive & continued noises coming from teens & children playing PC games on 2/F at this library. 8 out of 10 times I needed to go back to staff as the noises were continuing. I feel that libraries are supposed to be safe, fair & QUIET for all users. However, Yorkwood staff appear to be discriminatory against non-children in this kind of noise complaints. Their tolerance towards children noises is extremely high, or in children's favour because they are children & "they can talk".

Yorkwood already has a fair large designated children play & PC area on ground floor. I wonder why children are given almost unlimited & unrestricted PC access on the 2/F adult PC area & allowed to be fairly free to make excessive, on-going noises in an area where people are studying, researching, working, & prefer watching their favourite videos quietly.

Many staff I spoke to do not seem eager or appreciative that I complained. Some gave me unwelcome look, some said rude things back to me as if I was against these children, etc.

I already exercise lots of self control not to complain, e.g. noises, when I start complaining, noises must have been bad for 1-2 hours minimum, & no one else bothered to complain, & no staff says or does anything because the "cannot hear that".

Front line staff generally do not respond positively with professional courtesy in my experiences as someone at your level would expect & prefer to see, even though many other times I was simply given them items other people forgot & left behind.

So I started talking to people a little higher up & at more senior levels.

Looking forward to your response''

I sent this follow-up email to Yorkwoods Library Service Manager at the time dated Sept 10, 2014

''Ms. MacFayden,

I am more interested in if & how TPL is to address these concerns. I think I have talked to more than enough staff at Yorkwood for the past few years & been insulted &/or given attitude too much too often.

I spoke with Nicole ( Yorkwoods Branch Head of that time) at the library on or around Aug 14 about my last report on porn watching on a library PC. She was nice ( comparing to some other staff I talked to about porn watching) despite nothing that she could do

Please keep me informed & let me know if you require further details/input from me.''

No response for 6 weeks, so I sent another email dated Oct 23/24:

''Ms MacFayden

It's been 6 weeks & I appreciate if you can share with me any updates/changes/plans
Thank you''

Then I received this cold, not even a polite apologies whatsoever, all PR routine kind of reply with NO ACTION PLAN TO ME dated Oct 27/14:

'' Hi (private)

Thanks again for taking the time to forward your concerns. I am glad to hear that you had a positive experience talking with Nicole. She is the Branch Head of York Woods.

YWs staff will continue to monitor the use of the computers. If someone is watching pornography, they will be asked to stop because we want the branch to be safe and welcoming for everyone.

Please let me know if there are any concerns with your experience at York Woods.

Thanks.''