Windsor Public Library makes changes to improve safety

Windsor Public Library makes changes in the wake of alleged sex videos filmed at two branches.

A Windsor Public Library sign at the Fontainebleau branch on Mar. 3, 2015. (Jason Kryk / The Windsor Star)

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The next time you walk into your local library branch, you may notice something looks different.

Windsor library staff are improving sightlines in each of the system’s 10 branches to keep a closer eye on activities.

“Certainly improving our sightlines is a direct result of this incident,” said CEO Kitty Pope of the much-publicized sex videos allegedly live streamed from the Riverside and Fontainebleau branches by a young woman who went by the name lilsecrett.

Dozens of sex shows were allegedly performed from study desks as unsuspecting people, including children, were nearby.

Alexandria Morra, 21, has been charged by Windsor police with one count of committing an indecent act.

Pope said the library already has blockers on all its computers — for both the public and staff — to stop access to a variety of sites, including those with pornographic material, before the incident occurred.

Kitty Pope, Windsor Public Library CEO, is pictured at the main branch on Ouellette Avenue Tuesday, March 3, 2015. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star)

But the alleged acts weren’t live streamed via the library’s Wi-Fi system.

“The person used their own cellphone hooked to their own data service,” Pope said. “It had nothing to do with our data service or our computers.

“We have no capacity to filter your data service (on your cellphone),” she said. “I think that once people realize she was using her own data service … they get it.”

Pope said approximately “700,000 people walk through the doors” each year and they get about 92 incident reports annually – everything from falls to inappropriate behaviour.

Last year, two were related to looking at inappropriate material, she said.

The actual physical work of reorganizing the branches has already begun.

Pope said work has been completed at Sandwich and has started at Bridgeview and Fontainebleau.

“We’re setting up clear sightlines from work areas into the library,” Pope said.

Shelves for the library’s 600,000 books as well as seating areas are being shifted to allow for more open floor plans.

Pope expects it will take about two months to rearrange all the branches. The main library is last on the list because it’s the biggest and most complicated due to its floor plan and its large central column.

Most surprising to Pope is the amount of attention this has garnered from other library staff across Canada, which have been sharing similar stories and asking what Windsor is doing to make the libraries safer.

“In lots of ways it’s been an opportunity for the Windsor Public Library to step forward (on safety issues),” Pope said. “It’s a learning opportunity for the rest of Canada as well.”

jkotsis@windsorstar.com

Twitter.com/JulieKotsis

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