Homeless in Mass. Sue Over Library Policy

Robert Bombard scans the bookshelves at the Worcester Public Library in Worcester, Mass., July 25, 2006. When the library imposed a rule that let shelter residents check out no more than two items at a time, they probably didn't have someone like Bombard in mind. Bombard, who was living in a transitional housing facility and volunteering at the library last summer after finishing a two-year jail sentence, was always a voracious reader. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) (Charles Krupa - AP)

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Robert Bombard has always been a voracious reader. He worked at the city library as a teenager and was a volunteer there as an adult. Even when he served two years in jail on a drug charge, he did his time working in the lockup's library.

"I revere books," Bombard said. "I treat them very well. I wouldn't even put an open book down on the table because I don't want to hurt the binding."

So when Bombard went to check out more than two volumes after spending a day as a volunteer at Worcester's main library branch last summer, he was shocked when they told him no.

"They said 'Oh, no _ you live at a shelter,' right in front of everybody," he said. "It made me feel like a second-class citizen."

Bombard, who now lives with his father, isn't the only one who's taken offense at the library's three-year-old policy allowing shelter residents to check out no more than two books at a time.

Several complaints have led to a lawsuit against the library and the city, brought on behalf of three homeless people and two social service agencies by the Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Advocates for the homeless say the policy is just another example of the city declining to improve conditions for the homeless.

Penelope Johnson, the city's head librarian, said the policy was imposed because more and more items were not being returned by borrowers who could not be tracked down through a permanent address.

Because of the pending lawsuit, Johnson said she couldn't say how many items borrowed by homeless people were not returned. But she said the library's lending policy _ which lets people with a permanent address check out as many as 50 materials at a time _ was not intended to discriminate against the homeless.

"We are exploring ways to ensure that the borrowing policies are fair and equitable," Johnson said. "But we need a system that allows us to track and retrieve items."

John Reinstein, legal director for the ACLU in Massachusetts, said it's uncommon for libraries to develop policies that put restrictions on the homeless.

"To my knowledge, this is not a typical problem across the country," he said. "My experiences are that librarians are great people in making their facilities accessible to everyone."