How long has this building been located here?
We just built a new building in downtown Cleveland in the past couple years. We also renovated our old building. There are
10 floors in the new building, and six floors in the older one, which is an historical building. The buildings are located
next to each other, with a garden separating them. There is also a tunnel that connects the two buildings. We had another
building here that we tore down and that is when we built the new 10-floor building.
What is your title?
I am the Chief of Security. My headquarters are in the downtown facility, but I go out to all the branches. I have 20 full-time
guards that work for me. We also have another 20-25 contract guards that work for us. I am a member of ASIS (American Society
for Industrial Security). I have been with the library for 11 years, and have been the Chief of Security the entire time.
Before coming here, I was in the Cleveland Police Department for 33 years.
What are your major responsibilities at the library?
I do a lot of the investigative work. I have an Assistant Chief and a Head Supervisor that take care of everything else.
I oversee almost everything. We have staff problems that I handle, also. I am also an Administrator in the library. So,
I get involved in a lot of things that way. I sit at an administrative table and I am one of the staff of the library. That
brings another whole set of duties with it, other than security. But, I always have security in mind.
How is the attendance at the library?
On an average day, we are usually busy. We are not overly busy, especially in the summer, but we do get a lot of people
coming through here. We count the number of people that come in and out. The walk-in count for one month at the main building
was 20,894. The other building, with 10 floors, had 45,516. So, we have had 66,000 people in just one month's time. The
branches combined had 254,529 people total. That is a lot of people to watch!
What are the hours?
The library is open from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. everyday except Sunday. We are closed on Sunday during the summer. But in the winter,
the library is open on Sunday from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. We have guards here 24 hours a day, seven days a week, however. We patrol
every floor in both buildings. The PIPE helps us to do the tours. We currently have eight
PIPEs and over 100 buttons.
What is your main concern as you do the tours?
We are worried about water leaks. Believe it or not, we are more concerned with water than fire problems. Water will do
more damage than fire. We are also concerned about roof leaks. So, a lot of the buttons are by the fire pumps, sprinkler
systems, and by all kinds of pipes that have to be checked. We do not have any buttons within the actual books, because
we have our own separate system that watches that. Guard1 is for our guards. It accounts
for their time, makes sure they are getting to every floor, and getting to the places we want them to get to. It works out
great for us.
We have had an incident with water. The new building has helped, but we never had sprinkler systems before. We have had
a sprinkler go off when there was not a fire. But we managed to keep the damage to a minimum.
We also have a basement and a subbasement. There are some books stored there, as well as the mechanical operations. We definitely
do tours down there as well. We go to every part of the building.
What are you looking for during the tours?
During the day, the guards are on patrol looking for incidents. We get a lot of people that use the library as a hotel.
We also have a problem with people looking at inappropriate material on our computers. We have buttons placed so that the
guards have to walk by the computers and other areas.
Where are there other buttons located?
They are all over the place. We use them for tours, fire watches, and leaks. We only have one building that has a button
on the outside. It is used as a warehouse to store books now. I need to make sure the front door is locked.
Why did you switch from your original system?
Well, I saw an ad for your product in a magazine and I had a good reference. The buttons seemed to be a lot less conspicuous
than the strip from the system we had in place at the time. The PIPE is a lot easier to carry
than what we used with our own system.
When do you print the reports?
I print them if I find I am having a problem, or if I suspect someone is not doing their job. I do not print them out everyday
because there are too many. I do not even look at them everyday because it is too time consuming. But, if I see something
that is a problem, I will look at them. We download The PIPE once a week. But, I have never
had one that has gotten full.
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