Safety in the Library

Hello! My name is Ericka Dow and I serve as circulation supervisor at the Lake Jackson Branch of the LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library System and I am happy to be blogging for PLA along with the other event bloggers. My only ALA conference before this was DC in 2007. It was a blast and I met some great people. I look forward to another hectic and educational experience here in Chicago.

I’ve taken care of the “funny business” first- we went to Second City last night and took in a hilarious show and this morning when the exhibits opened I made a beeline to the Unshelved booth. Then on to more serious stuff. I missed part of the “Effective Safety and Security in the Public Library” program, which was standing and floor-lounging room only, but did catch one speaker, Andrew Sanderbeck of People Connect Institute, who talked about violence in the workplace and how that applies to libraries.

Many patrons seem to have a misconception that public library buildings and spaces are completely safe. We do our best to make them so, but, the fact is, they are open to anyone and therefore have the potential to be unsafe at any time. I think the best tool for safety and security is communication. Andrew addressed this and other issues.  He recommended Virginia Beach Public Library’s website for guidelines on operating safe libraries. Some things to expect from VBPL guidelines:

• apply rules equally to all customers
• deal with problems as they happen
• how do employees handle explosive (not literally) customers?
• employees must have some authority if they also have responsibility. Are employees really empowered to diffuse a situation on their own?
• be a keen observer—observe details, learn to recognize suspicious behavior, alert other staff members
• Communicate with staff about anything unusual and let the object of said unusualness know that you are aware of their presence in the library

He also discussed a technique to evaluate how you handle situations– E+R=O from Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup books): Events (look at the event intellectually, not emotionally); Response (behavior of reacting is learned, ie If you yell at someone when you are cut off in traffic, you have learned how to respond that way from somewhere); Outcome (you can control the outcome, at least to a degree)

A quick search did not show me where the guidelines are on the VBPL site, but I’m sure the correct URL is on the handout–which they ran out of due to the turnout being very high!  The presenters said they would post the handout to PLASpace as soon as possible.  The other presenters were Sarah Sledge, Madison Public Library; Karen Danczak-Lyons, First Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Public Library; and Bryan Oliver, Safety & Security Manager, Richland County Public Library.