Harassment of library staff members continues to be a shadow issue in the library profession. This means it may not be reported soon enough, handled thoroughly, or enforced with real consequences. When harassment is mismanaged by library leaders or outside HR professionals, the message to the employee-targets is mixed: Do we care about this issue to have hard conversations with patrons that their words, conduct, pervasiveness, and behavior are not welcome in our library?
Patrons can sexually or racially harass other patrons, as well as staff. They can rationalize their language and behaviors as part of “saying or doing what I want because this is a free country,” but that’s just wrong. We have policies, a Code of Conduct, and a workplace culture that prohibits physical, sexual, racial, and bullying harassment, and we need to enforce those, even if it means we lose a patron (who probably won’t be missed). We owe that vigorous response to all employees, who expect us to fulfill the legal, moral, and ethical duty to provide a harassment-free workplace.
This subject, and its impact on the library, is one of those “hard conversations” that library leaders have to have with certain consistently problematic patrons. Like hygiene issues, or staring behaviors, or causing verbal disruptions, this starts with a library leader saying, “We need to talk,” which means, “Patron, you need to listen about what cannot continue here.”
About the Speaker
DR. STEVE ALBRECHT. Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, security, and supervision. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons. In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. He is currently writing the sequel, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, for Rowman & Littlefield. Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment. He has written 24 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives with six dogs, two cats, and three chickens. (Not all in the same room, of course.)
