Want Less Work Stress?
Try More B.R.E.A.D.S.
Dr. Steve Albrecht

Library work is stressful because it so often involves interactions with other humans - patrons, co-workers, bosses, and elected officials. Some of the necessary and related conversations needed to get through the day are pleasant, routine, and casual; some are uncomfortable, unusual, and unwelcome. It’s easy to go home dog-tired at the end of a long day of high human contact and after lots of repetitive transactions, especially if you’re a member of Introverts Anonymous, like me: “Hi, I’m Steve and I’m an Introvert.” Group: “Hi Steve!”

(You ask: “How is it possible you’re an Introvert, Steve? You stand in front of strangers and teach classes. Isn’t public speaking one of the greatest human fears?” Yes, it’s true. I have learned to adjust to the event. You may label me a “Situational Extrovert,” a description I share with many of library folk, who have to turn themselves on and off, as need be.)

What follows are tools for realistic stress management. Each of these will help you with the personal and professional stressors you face at every point during your library career. If you can focus on these six, every day, you will see important differences in your energy level, enthusiasm for life, relationships, and improvements in your work, patience, and overall mental and physical health.

Breathing – All stress-related breathing is short, shallow, and rapid. Stress-managed breathing is long, deep, and slow. Shallow breathing creates a vicious circle; the shorter your breaths, the more of them you need to take. Breathe in a cycle: inhale, hold briefly, exhale, hold briefly, inhale, hold, etc. Practice breathing slowly and deeply, concentrating on the length of each breath and spending a moment on those transitions between the end of each inhalation and the start of each exhalation.

Relaxation – Using focused relaxation (or mindfulness meditation, which is popular today) for stress control means you should try to find a minimum of 10 minutes each day, in a safe place, to close your eyes and simply do one thing: breathe slowly, counting from 100 down to 1 (okay, so that’s two things). If you can make this a part of your everyday routine, you will actually want to start extending the time.

Exercise – Running a marathon is not necessary to get beneficial, stress-relieving exercise. Just walk, daily, for about 30 minutes. Walking is easier on your joints, burns calories if you move along at a good pace (about 130 steps per minute), and is a great social activity to connect with your spouse or partner, friends, colleagues, or your dog. Exercise helps you get better sleep, burns your excess stress energy from the day, and supports your heart.

Attitude – In two words, you can better manage your personal and professional stress when you are relentlessly positive. People who see the worst in every one and in every thing are no fun to be around. Not all the world is bad. Those same people who always see their glass (or their checking account) as half-empty rather than half-full bring everyone around them down. Carlsbad, CA-based psychologist and stress expert Dr. Brian Alman says it best, “Successful people have one foot in the present and the other in the future. Miserable people have one foot in the present and the other stuck in the past.”

Diet – Out with the bad carbs (diet and regular sodas, candy, bagels, white rice, pasta, fries) and in with the lean proteins, more veggies, complex carbohydrates, fruits, nuts, more water, and vitamins. Food is a drug and it changes your mood for the good or the bad (caffeine, liquor, sugar, fats). Small changes make a big difference over time, like cutting portion sizes, avoiding most fast foods, drinking two glasses of water before each meal, no carbs after dinner, or adding more fiber. Your body needs fuel but it needs the right kinds of fuel. What you eat makes a difference in how you think, feel, exercise, and even how you sleep.

Sleep – We are a sleep-deprived culture. People who say they can get by on four to six hours a night are actually harming themselves. Lack of sleep affects your hormones (which can give you belly fat), judgment, concentration, and interactions with people. If you feel tired all the time, resolve to get more and better sleep than you do now. Make your bedroom dark, quiet (use a white noise fan, a sleep mask, or ear plugs), and cool. Don’t fight with your spouse or partner in the bedroom. Go to another part of the house to have hard conversations. The bedroom should be a place of peace.

I encourage you to go to YouTube and look at the stress-relief videos by Dr Brian Alman. They are brief, practical, and his approach to relaxation is something we can all use.

Fixing C.O.B.I. at Your Library
Make the Commitment to Error-Free Excellence: Part 2
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

As I discussed in my C.O.B.I: Part 1 post, my father, Dr. Karl Albrecht (www.KarlAlbrecht.com) coined the acronym “C.O.B.I.” or the Cost of Bad Information, to define how the wrong information, either given by an employee, or found on a website, or even a sign, can ruin our day.

Examples abound, where one piece of bad information sets us off in a completely wrong direction, wasting time, costing money, and frazzling nerve endings:

• A website that has not updated its physical address, so you drive to or send stuff to the wrong location.
• An employee on an 800 number who tells you something completely wrong when you call.
• A movie that starts at a different time than you bought a ticket for.
• A plane that arrives at another gate than what it says on the big board.
• The restaurant you thought was open on Tuesday night is closed for a private party, a fact you don’t see until you get to the door.
• Hidden, unposted fees on a contract or a website.
• A road sign that sends you in the wrong direction (which reminds me of my Germany story).

A few years ago, I left Neuschwanstein Castle in Schwangu, Germany really, really early one morning, enroute to the Frankfurt Airport. It’s about a 3.5-hour drive, which is fine, except when one of the roads I was on in a little town dead-ended in front of a huge road construction project. I came around a corner and there it was: orange cones everywhere, steel barricades across all four lanes, several hundred yards of uncrossable dirt, mud, and broken concrete, and not a soul or a sign in sight, to tell me what to do or where to go next. Literally, I had nowhere to turn other than to drive nearly all the way back the way I came.

Google Maps and Apple Maps were no help, because they both kept trying to send me back on to the road that was blocked. After about an hour of driving in circles, I stumbled – in the dark and only by accident and not because of any signs or maps - on to the right road and made it to the airport with minutes to spare. What should have been a pleasant, stress-free drive through the German countryside turned into a tedious, repetitive exercise in “Where am I?”

One of the rationalizations employees who provide inaccurate information use is, “The customer should already know what to do. It’s obvious! Do I have to explain everything?”

The short answer is, “No, not everything is obvious, especially to people who have had no experience with this particular building, road, website, computer, buying process, or refund policy is that it is indeed, new to them. It’s easy for all of us in service businesses to believe that everyone knows how to do once or for the first time, what we do every day.

Being dismissive of customer complaints about how to navigate through the maze of ways to do things can create huge issues about trust, especially when their efforts are complicated by bad information. In the library environment, this can turn our patrons from reasonable, cooperative, expectant people into surprised, angry, and disconcerted ones.

We do not ever want our patrons to say, “Can I really trust what I’m hearing from the people who work at the library or trust what I am given?” When this happens, it can create diminished expectations that can range from irritating to severe.

Preventing C.O.B.I. starts with taking responsibility for the accuracy of our information. This should be an all-hands, every-employee response, even for those what work part-time or volunteer. Why? Because our patrons don’t care about staff job titles or who has been there twenty years or twenty days; they want information they can both get and trust.

Consider these solutions to prevent C.O.B.I. at your library:

• The library’s website must sync correctly with any data on the library’s social media platforms. Each must match the other(s).
• It might be time for a sign review, starting with a walk around the exterior of your library. Are there any signs in the parking lot that are missing, outdated, or wrong? Is every single sign on your entry/exit doors accurate, with regard to hours of operations, programs (including cancellations), holiday hours, or after-hours/emergency contact phone numbers? Does every sign in your library serve a purpose and provide accurate information? Take down the old ones, update the current ones, and create new ones.
• Talk as a group, early and often about providing accurate information, in staff meetings, small-group discussions, and in passing, every day. Bad information should not linger at the library. Correct what needs correction.
• All directors, managers, supervisors, and PICs need to verify the information they are responsible, for themselves, and then through frequent clarifying and updating conversations with each other. Any updated or correcting information needs to be told to staff in the usual variety of ways: all-hands or individual emails, memos placed into Reference Desk notebooks, posted signs, and in formal or informal staff or individual meetings.
• Instead of Alec Baldwin yelling at his salesmen in “Glengarry Glen Ross” to “A-B-C! Always Be Closing!” we can say we need to “A-B-R! Always Be Researching!” Federal and state website data changes by the hour. The news media, in all its forms, never sleeps. Databases update themselves. We need to be right.

It’s up to us, at all levels in the library, to be correct from the start, and to make the necessary, immediate adjustments in the information we provide throughout the day and to make certain our online resources are always accurate and timely as well. We owe it to every patron, every day.

It should be our goal to surpass their expectations about receiving timely and accurate information. This creates a bond of trust and an expectation that their library is the place to go to get what they want to know.

Creating the Perfect Library Security Officer
Ask for more from your security guard provider.
By Dr. Steve Albrecht
 
There are usually two types of library security officers: in-house or contract. In-house security officers are more rare, but they could be provided by your city, county, or perhaps through the Sheriff’s Department. The benefit to this type is that they have knowledge of crime issues in the area and tend to be more responsive (and loyal) because they are also employees just like you. The downside to contract employees is that you may get stuck with an officer who has retired on duty or is a bit lazy and doesn’t do much. You can start by putting some pressure on this person’s boss to get them to work harder.

Contract security employees offer their own set of pros and cons. The biggest downside is they are usually horribly underpaid and as such, we don’t get the quality employee we need because the low pay drives the good guards to go to other firms where they are paid better. The best part about using a contract security officers is that if the firm is reputable and hires well, and has a large number of employees, you can request they put another, better qualified officer in your library, to replace a guard who is not doing the job to your satisfaction.

One of your duties is to make sure the contract security officer is a good fit with the culture of your library, as it’s oriented by your patrons and employees. Is this person a good service provider and not heavy-handed in the security role? Does this person communicate effectively with patrons and staff of different races, genders, and ages? Does this person intervene in patron behavior issues with skill and tact? If not, you have the right to request another officer from the contractor.

Like creating the perfect service-oriented library employee, getting the best use of security officers in your library will take some careful thought, planning, preparation, and discussion, with both library leaders and staff members. It makes good security sense to talk as a group about the benefits of a security officer and how to make the best use of his or her abilities in your library. Then you can meet with the in-house or contract security providers and explain your needs in detail.

In the Security Guard World, it’s all about the Posted Orders. These Orders tell the officer what to do, how to do it, where to do it, when to do it, why to do it, and for whom to do it. The Posted Orders are supposed to be the Last Word on their job duties.

The problem is that too many contract officers are placed into library facilities by the security company’s salesperson, using the same Posted Orders that they would use for a factory, warehouse, retail store, or other non-library location. You need Posted Orders that are specifically created for your library.

The first step, if you don’t have a security officer now or have never had one, is to start with a clean slate about this person’s job duties. Sit down with selected staff members, supervisors, manager, and library leaders and brainstorm what you want - In The Perfect Library World - for this security officer to do.

If you already have a security service in one or more of your libraries, it’s not too late to make changes to their Posted Orders. Look at what is on file now and seek to make changes. Let’s create a list of job duties and responsibilities for your library security officer. You can add, delete, or modify these suggestions to fit the needs of your building, your patrons, and the security concerns of your staff.

Be visible, in full uniform, at all times while working.

Be accessible, by cell phone or radio, at all times while working. (No personal cell phone use or use of our Internet while on duty.)

Patrol the exterior of the library building every hour.

Patrol the parking lot or parking garage every hour.

Walk the library floor every 30 minutes.

Check the public restrooms every hour for illegal activities or violations of our Code of Conduct.

Greet patrons at the main entrance and provide directions, if necessary.

Interact with patrons as necessary and re-direct them to staff for four further help.

Interact with library staff and supervisors about any safety or security issues.

Escort patrons from the library who have been asked to leave or have been previously banned.

Check the Computer Lab, Genealogy Room, and staff work areas several times per shift.

Brief responding police officers to any security concerns; provide an update about a situation as they arrive.

Pay attention for any medical emergencies and call 9-1-1; provide basic first-aid as able.

Pay attention to any hazards that could results in injuries, fires, or damage to library property.

Know the evacuation routes and be ready to evacuate staff and patrons to safe locations outside the building.

Escort any staff members who request it to their cars in the parking lot after close of business.

These need to be communicated to the security vendor’s Site Security Manager in charge of the contract for your facility. These also need to be measured, using observations and reviews, to make certain the things on paper are being done in person. Once you and the Site Security Manager have agreed these are the appropriate Posted Orders (and they are subject to change and modification, as events or needs dictate), this is the standard that all guards must meet fit if they are to work in your library.

The C.O.B.I. at Your Library
What is the Cost of Bad Information at your facility? Part 1
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Your library’s website says the building closes at 8:00 pm. Except it’s a local holiday and the library actually closed at 6:00 pm. A few dozen people came by between 6:15 and 7:45 and they are not happy campers. Somebody on the library’s social media side forgot to update the site and well, “stuff happens.” That “stuff” is yet another example of what my father, Dr. Karl Albrecht (www.KarlAlbrecht.com), calls “C.O.B.I.” or the Cost of Bad Information. Writing in the June 2025 issue of the Bulletin of the American Mensa Society (https://shorturl.at/wVEBn) he says:

“1. Bad information almost always costs somebody something. The cost could range from trivial, to significant, to catastrophic.

2. Bad information is literally everywhere. It pervades our lives. We encounter it every day.

3. We’re mostly oblivious to its effects; we mostly take it in stride and just try to climb over it.”

Here’s an example that maybe you have had happen:

Your doctor prescribes a prescription for you. The medical assistant confirms the address of your usual drugstore/pharmacy. They send a prescription there and you assume that since the store is open, the pharmacy will be open. The is nothing on the store’s website about a change in hours. You arrive at the pharmacy early on Friday evening to discover it won’t be open again till Monday morning. If you had known about the hours change, you would’ve had the prescription sent to an open pharmacy. Your doctor’s office is now closed, so you can’t get them to send it to another pharmacy. Three days with no meds because someone didn’t fix the pharmacy’s website.

Let’s apply C.O.B.I. to the library world and see who it impacts.

A patron who lives quite a distance away from the library calls the branch to ask if a certain hold is in. The staffer quickly glances at the hold shelf and thinks he sees the book. He confirms with the patron that the book is there and after a long drive, the patron arrives to discover that the staffer was wrong; he saw the wrong book and assumed it was the one the patron wanted.

A local community group wants to book one of your rooms for a lunch meeting. The library staffer collects their deposit and promises the room will be ready on the day they need it. That day comes, only to discover that another group paid for the room at the same time and neither library employee knew about it. Now both groups are standing in the room claiming ownership and are mad at each other and the library.

Patron: “Will I be able to drop of my absentee ballot at the library?”

Staffer: “I think so. I’m pretty sure I saw the drop box outside.”

The drop box was moved two weeks ago.

Patron: “Is there still time to sign up my kid for your summer reading program? Is there still room? Is there a fee?”

Staffer: “There’s plenty of space. The deadline is two weeks away. I don’t think there is a fee.”

See what happens below.

Who are the usual culprits when it comes to C.O.B.I. at the library?

The library’s website and Home page, and the people who are supposed to keep them accurate and current.

The library’s social media sites and postings, and ditto.

The Directors, managers, and supervisors who are supposed to provide both accurate and timely information (dates, times, places, deadlines, links, fees,etc.) and check to make sure the newly-posted content is correct.

Staff members, who should only tell patrons what they know to be actually true, not probably true (a big flaw in C.O.B.I. - “I thought they had until next Friday to sign up for the summer reading program. There is no more room and there is a fee. I guess I was wrong.”)

What are the excuses library employees at every level will use when they are accused of providing bad information or not verifying the correct information?

“”It’s not my fault. I didn’t know. No one told me about the change.”

“My boss is supposed to handle that.”

“The patron should have known better or checked with somebody else.”

“I shouldn’t be expected to know everything about this place.”

“So what? So they missed out on something. What’s the big deal?”

Preventing C.O.B.I. starts with taking responsibility for the accuracy of our information. This has to happen at every level in the library and it’s what I will discuss in Part 2 next week.

I’m originally from San Diego, which is home to one of the best zoos in the country. It’s also the home of what used to be called the San Diego Wild Animal Park (and is now called the San Diego Zoo Safari Park), where you can tour re-creations of the African plains and see all the animals that live there. The San Diego Zoo is in the downtown area and the San Diego Zoo Safari is in northern San Diego County, a distance of about 37 miles apart.

I was at the downtown library and I heard a staffer give directions to a tourist as to how to get to the park that was 37 miles away instead of two miles away. I politely intervened and asked which place the tourist was intending to see and then gave the correct directions as to the zoo that was a five-minute drive away. The library employee was embarrassed but shrugged it off by saying, “Well, I guess I misheard him.”

Two issues: Imagine how angry you would have been if you have followed the first set of directions and had to make a 74-mile, 90-minute drive back to the right zoo, because the person who gave you directions was completely wrong? And second, one reason for C.O.B.I. is employees who lack both listening skills and clarification skills. Both are critically important; don’t just take what you hear at first, investigate the issue and then provide the correct information before you send the other person off on a wild goose chase.

Homeless” vs. “Unhoused”
Does it matter what we call them?

This is a guest editorial penned by my library training colleague, Ryan Dowd. He is the author of The Librarians’s Guide to Homelessness: An Empathy-Driven Approach to Solving Problems, Preventing Conflict, and Serving Everyone (ALA, 2018)

From Ryan:

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A lot of people ask me what word to use when addressing "people without a home.” Here are my thoughts...

Language doesn't matter as much as we want it to.

The goal of changing the language of stigmatized groups is to reduce stigma.

That is a worthy goal. I can get behind that.

Unfortunately, reducing stigma is a LOT harder than simply swapping out words. (Stigma has a nasty habit of hopping from one word to its replacement.)

A few years ago, people-first language ("individuals experiencing homelessness") was all the rage.

Unfortunately, there is evidence that people-first language actually INCREASES stigma.

(Gernsbacher, Morton Ann, Editorial Perspective: The use of person-first language in scholarly writing may accentuate stigma, The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58:7 (2017), pp 859-861)

Now "unhoused" is in vogue.

Ironically, "unhoused" is actually an elitist term as it implies that the middle-class suburban single-family house is the goal. It dismisses apartments, SROs, shared living environments, and other alternative housing arrangements as unworthy of being a "home."

Part of what got us into this housing crisis is our bias towards middle-class norms being codified into law through zoning ordinances.

Worrying about language is a privilege

I've never met anyone who slept under a bridge or ate out of a dumpster who cared about the language of homelessness.

From my experience, homeless folks care about practical things like safe shelter, reliable food, medical care, and being treated like a human being.

It is only those of us with a full belly and a warm bed that have the luxury of quibbling about words.

It is worth noting that Abraham Maslow didn't include "proper language" anywhere on his famous hierarchy of human needs.

I try to let the people who are doing the suffering set the agenda.

Language policing does real damage

One publication declared, "If you use the word 'homeless' you are part of the problem."

Stuff like that makes my blood boil!

When we shame well-meaning people, we ensure that they avoid talking about the issue ever again.

If we are going to end homelessness, we need to recruit these people to the cause, not chase them away.

So, what word should you use?

Honestly, I don't care much.

"Homeless" is fine with me.

So is "unhoused."

Ditto to "individuals experiencing homelessness."

Whatever word you use, I would ask the following things of you:

1). When you are face to face with someone who is "unhoused," treat them like a human being.

2). Vote for candidates who are pursuing policies that help end "homelessness."

3). Recruit other people to help "individuals experiencing homelessness" regardless of what word they use.

Peace,

Ryan Dowd

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Sometimes, when it comes to keeping our library employees happy, motivated, and dedicated, we have our questions backwards. We only discover they are not any of these three things as they are going out the door. In the spirit of standing at the top of the river versus waiting at the bottom of the waterfall, it can help to get ahead of their job dissatisfaction by asking them about it, rather than discovering what made them leave, at the time of the less-than-fun “Exit” Interview..

The Society For Human Resources (SHRM.org) is one of the largest professional organizations for HR professionals. As a member (and board certified by them since 1995), I come across articles and ideas that can benefit library leaders and library staffers.

One approach, covered in their HR Forms section for members, refers to the value of asking ”Stay Interview Questions.” This is a bit of an early-warning coaching conversation, that touches base with an employee who might be thinking of leaving your library. This person could be a new-hire, who is trying to decide if the job is actually right for her or him, or it could be a longtime employee who feels burned out, “top-stepped out” (no other promotional levels to reach or strive for), or on the fence about a career change, a move to a new city, or retiring early.

Your use of these questions - which you can customize to match your management style and conversational goals - can help you discover what you and your library may need to do differently to help retain this employee; give you a sense of this person’s personal and professional goals; and help you make staffing decisions if it’s clear she or he has a leaving date in mind.

Some of these questions may reveal some issues about how employees get along, or don’t; about how work gets signed, delegated, or completed; and it may even bring serious, hidden issues to light that you need to address. This could include harassment problems; the perception of fairness in your hiring, promotion, and discipline processes; and underlying concerns about the health of your work culture.

From the SHRM website (https://shorturl.at/lsTX8):

“The following are questions you may ask during a stay interview. You should have several open-ended questions on hand. It’s important to listen and gather ideas from the employee about how you and your organization can retain him or her.

• What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?
• What do you like most or least about working here?
• What keeps you working here?
• If you could change something about your job, what would that be?
• What would make your job more satisfying?
• How do you like to be recognized?
• What talents are not being used in your current role?
• What would you like to learn here?
• What motivates (or demotivates) you?
• What can I do to best support you?
• What can I do more of or less of as your manager?
• What might tempt you to leave?”

Think of this process as the better, earlier, wiser antidote to the so-called “Exit Interview,” where the library leader or the HR manager discovers the reason(s) why the employee is leaving only after it is far too late to do anything about them.

Visit www.TheSafeLibrary.com and see Steve’s training work at www.Library20.com

Service, Safety, and Security at Your Library: Tools and Tips You Can Use
by Dr. Steve Albrecht

Service, safety, and security at the library are every employee’s responsibility. These three concepts can help us create a place that provides benefits for staff and patrons. We can define them collectively as:

• Service is an on-going opportunity for us all, every day, with every patron encounter and to and for our colleagues.

• Safety is having awareness, information about potential problems, previous incidents, and continued vigilance. We can all make a difference to keep patrons and co-workers safe, especially by sharing or supporting staff concerns.

• Security is everybody’s responsibility, including library leaders, employees, full and part-timers; volunteers; and even our patrons and vendors. They can all tell us what we need to recognize and address.

There are also three important staff keys to a safe library. All staff should ask themselves, “Do I feel...?”

• Physically safe: Coming to work, working at my library, and leaving work?

• Mentally safe: Confident, empowered, able to concentrate on my daily tasks, and serve the library patrons and my colleagues? Not distracted, anxious, or fearful?

• Emotionally safe: Stable, grounded, in control of my feelings, thoughts, actions, and decisions, and I’m comfortable establishing personal limits and boundaries, as to how I want to be treated by patrons?

Every facility that is open to the public creates an “invitee relationship,” meaning because we invite people into our building (both staff and patrons), we have a legal duty (as best as we can) to provide a space that is safe from harm (hazards, problem people).

Library staff needs to help their leadership team identify their main patron behavioral issues (our “frequent fliers”) and who are their most challenging patrons. Use staff meetings to create useful and repeatable responses for dealing with them. (Remember that patrons are usually challenging rather than difficult; it’s an important descriptive distinction.)

All staff need to recognize two primary types of patron body language; what we can call “green light” behaviors versus “red light” behaviors:

• Positive, non-threatening: smiles; nods in agreement; offers to shake hands; hands down/palms open; even, neutral, polite, friendly tone; non-aggressive eye contact; calm breathing; standing still; reasonable volume; early cooperation.

• Hostile, threatening: sudden flushed or contorted face; direct and forceful eye contact; widening eyes; frowning; faster breathing; licking lips; flexing fists; crossing and uncrossing arms; shifting foot to foot; finger pointing; swallowing; sudden sweating; space violating; rises up to appear larger; on the verge of tears; curses; counter or table-pounding; kicks objects; loud at first then quiet; all of which can be a precursor to violence.

We need to follow our intuition during any intense conversations or hostile encounters with someone. Assess the actual likely outcome versus our own fears or anxieties. In other words, don’t overreact and don’t underreact.

When it comes to enforcing our Code of Conduct, remember our Essential Eight: We are firm, fair, consistent, assertive, legal, patient, empathic, and reasonable with everyone we encounter.

We need to build our communication skills to know how to help people who are struggling. We need to be aware of the diversity in the communities we serve and be ready to use different strategies to help them.

We need to have and continue to develop a set of tools to both relate and de-escalate with patrons with mental health, housing, and substance use issues. We need to know what our community and social support resources are, for those patrons, including knowing when to call paramedics when these patrons are having serious medical problems.

We need to know what our building safety procedures (e.g., using panic buttons) and emergency evacuation procedures are. Know how and where to escort patrons who have mobility issues to those exits. Know the Run-Hide-Fight response to the rare possibility of an active shooter. (Go to YouTube and watch the Cal State University system’s version of “Run-Hide-Fight.”)

If there isn’t already one in place, it can help to create an employee-led Safety Committee. This group should meet quarterly, to discuss issues and then bring concerns, ideas, policy improvements, or solutions to the Library Director.

Accurate and timely documentation helps us make better policy decisions and justify our need for security improvements to elected officials and library boards. We can’t fix what we (and they) don’t know about. All staff need to know how to report security incidents or safety hazards and how to create a Security Incident Report.

We can be both "kind and firm" with patrons. We don't have to say those words, but we can think of them when we talk. Remember our motto when it comes to the safe use of the library for all: Educate with Patience; Enforce with Kindness.

Lastly, public service jobs with lots of transactions and high contact can be frustrating, tiring, and stressful. Let’s all recognize our self-care needs. Look for wellness opportunities at work and search online for professional and personal stress management tools on and off the job.

More at the www.TheSafeLibrary.com

Dr. Steve Albrecht helps all types of libraries provide good service and keep themselves and their facilities and collections secure, while dealing with increasingly challenging patrons. His two books on this subject include: The Safe Library (Rowman, 2023) and Library Security (ALA, 2015).

From https://lucidea.com/blog/author-interview-library-hr, Lauren Hays at Lucidea, June 10, 2025

Challenging Library Patron Behaviors
Use These Six Choices
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

In the 1941 film noir movie classic, “The Maltese Falcon,” Humphrey Bogart, playing private detective Sam Spade, meets femme fatale Brigid O’Shaunessy, played by Mary Astor. In the opening scene, she concocts a story about her missing sister to get Spade and his partner to find her and scare off her rival for the black bird, the name of the movie that all the forthcoming fuss will be about.

There is a line in their first discussion that always strikes me as so spot-on. In talking about what she did to contact her sister, Brigid says, “I shouldn’t have done that, should I?” Spade replies, “It’s not always easy to know what to do.”

His response seems like such an accurate answer for the complexities and challenges of modern life today: It’s certainly never easy to know what to do.

In my live programs and online library service, safety, and security workshops, I’m often given a complex patron behavioral concern and asked by an anxious staffer, “Did I do the right thing?”

My answer is always a positive “yes,” perhaps with a touch of helpful correction added in, because I know we cannot predict human behavior and we especially can’t predict eccentric, threatening, or potentially violent human behavior. Equally true, it’s mostly impossible to predict accurately the motives for threatening behaviors. We often don’t know the why until after scary people have said or done what they planned to do.

And I often get asked about what to do about a complex patron behavioral problem by a staff member or during a training group discussion and my answer is, “It depends.” Being a longtime consultant, it’s a useful response when I don’t know the best answer and I need a bit more time to think of a useful answer and not a perfect one. And isn’t, “It depends” kind of how life choices go? This might work or it might not, depending on the context, past behaviors and our answers to them, and the reaction of the other person.

As such, as I review the vast array of potential responses to a problematic patron, I believe we can boil them down to these six. While not perfect (and we already established there is no perfect way of fixing people), these six can give us a framework that helps:

Intuition?

What does your gut feeling tell you to do? Get help? Back away? Call over the PIC or a higher-level boss? Push the Panic Button? Call 9-1-1? Handle it using your work experience and life wisdom? Try your collection of de-escalation and communication tools? Say or do nothing, in the hopes that the situation resolves itself after the patron self-calms, runs out of negative energy, satisfies his or her need to vent, or sees the error of his or her ways?

Intuition is a valuable tool, says Hollywood security expert Gavin de Becker in his bestselling book, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence, because it’s “knowing what to do without knowing why.” The “little voice,” that tells us to talk more, talk less, take action, get help, or move away is built into our DNA.

Code of Conduct?

What does the rules built into our Code of Conduct tell us to do? Is the patron’s behavior a clear violation (like physically assaulting staff or another patron), meaning they need to be arrested and/or banned, or is it more about something that can be handled with a verbal warning?

The Code of Conduct is not the be-all, end-all about library behavior (otherwise it would be a 192 pages long), but it’s a useful place to look, especially since it offers us one of the best ways to be firm, fair, consistent, assertive, legal, empathic, patient, and reasonable (otherwise known as my “Essential Eight”).

Library Policy?

Every library should have a Policies and Procedures (P&P) Manual that covers the steps directors, mangers, supervisors, and employees need to take to handle a host of issues related to patron behaviors. The P&Ps can be seen as a larger, more thorough, more in-depth version of the Code of Conduct.

State, County, or City Laws?

We’re not asking librarians to become lawyers (although some certainly are, working at county and state law libraries), but every state has a collection of law books that address various problematic library behaviors. These include the Penal Code (for crimes that occur in the library, like assault, battery, theft, vandalism, making threats, possession of child pornography); the Health & Safety Code (often used for drug and alcohol offenses); or the Welfare and Institutions Code (often used to define mental health concerns, like “danger to self or others” or “gravely disabled”).

Cities and counties have Municipal Codes that cover everything from illegal parking at the library, to soliciting for money, to overnight sleeping in public places.

The function of all these law books and codes is to help library leaders and their staffs to enforce consequences for problematic library behaviors that hurt the overall library experience and impact the enjoyment others are seeking when they walk inside the building.

Our Usual Approach?

What does the work culture suggest we do? In other words, how have we handled similar patron behavior issues in the past - especially with some of our more chronic, “frequent fliers”? This can vary from branch to branch, with geography having a lot to do with how patrons act appropriately or act up in certain parts of town, being very different than how they act - and how we respond - across the city or county. What has worked in the past may or may not work again, but patterns exist for a reason, and it can help not to make thing worse, by doing what solves the problem based on the past.

What’s Reasonable?

Lastly, the concept of “reasonableness” is a court-tested theory that has a basis for establishing whether or not we did the right thing. Again, without having to be a lawyer, we can ask ourselves, collectively, as both library leaders and staff, “Did we do the right thing, on behalf of the staff and the patrons? Was our response deemed as thoughtful and measured, meaning we didn’t overreact or under-react?” Being reasonable takes into account the previous five elements listed above, into a measure of fairness.

To Union or Not to Union
That is the Question for Some Library Employees
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) became the first president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886. At age 10, he began rolling cigars with his father, at his home in London, before moving to New York City three years later. At age 25, he was elected president of the Cigar Makers’ International Union. He is long known as the founding father of the organized labor movement in the US.

According to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership by employees in the United States in 2022 is 14.3 million employees, or about 10.1% of all employed workers (https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf).

This number has trended downward over the last 40 years. As the US DOL BLS report attests, “The 2022 unionization rate (10.1 percent) is the lowest on record. In 1983, the first year where comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers.”

“Among occupational groups, the highest unionization rates in 2022 were in protective service occupations (34.6 percent) and in education, training, and library occupations (33.7 percent). Unionization rates were lowest in sales and related occupations (3.0 percent); computer and mathematical occupations (3.3 percent); food preparation and serving related occupations (3.6 percent); and management occupations (3.8 percent).” Ibid. (Emphasis mine.)

A question that has come up on several Library 2.0 webinars concerns how or even if, managers and supervisors should coach union employees. Is a library employee, who is a member of a union, entitled to a union representative during a meeting (also known as a “Weingarten meeting,” from the 1975 US Supreme Court ruling)? The answer is: “Not if the meeting is merely for the purpose of conveying work instructions, training, or communicating needed corrections in the employee's work techniques.”

If the meeting is an “investigatory meeting,” then the employee is entitled to a rep during the discussion. An “investigatory meeting” is defined as when “a supervisor questions an employee to obtain information which could be used as a basis for discipline or asks an employee to defend his or her conduct. If an employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or discharge may result from what he or she says, the employee has the right to request union representation.”

Since coaching meetings are requests for the employee to change or improve his or her work performance (quality or quantity of work, meeting deadlines, etc.) or work behavior (following policies and procedures, interacting with bosses, co-workers, or customers, etc.), and are not used to either threaten or initiate discipline, they are not Weingarten eligible.

I have also been asked by some library employees - who are often highly unsatisfied with their work environment, working conditions, or the way they feel they have been treated by their library directors, managers, or supervisors (always a highly subjective view) - if they should unionize. I tell them it’s not my job to sway them either way and I am neither an advocate for management nor a champion for labor unions. Over my long career, I have worked with both entities, as an HR consultant, most often in a problem-solving or conflict-resolution role. (I was a rank-and-file member of a union when I worked for the City of San Diego.)

Here’s what I believe to be true for employees who want to unionize: you have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of establishing a union shop at your workplace. The benefits are often more visible than the drawbacks. To wit:

Pros:

• Union membership creates more fairness in the hiring, management, supervision, and promotions process. The presence of the negotiated Memo of Understanding (MOU) makes the employment cycle visible and subject to correction if it’s not legal, ethical, or fair.

• Unions can stabilize the local wages and benefits - often at higher than current rates. In other words, a rising tide floats all boats. And in many systems, you can get most of the same benefits all members get, without having to be a dues-paying member; you just don’t get union representation in Weingarten meetings, as one example, although you’re usually subject to the same wages and benefits package.

• MOUs create a structured, formalized process for employees to file grievances that management must address. This can create more accountability for the working conditions and the work culture.

Cons:

• The (often way-long) process where a union is introduced to the employees, and the subsequent successful vote to unionize, can create lots of animosity between the management side and the employee side. Becoming unionized can seem like a victory for the employees and a defeat for the management, which can create longstanding grudges. And in a worst-case scenario, some people who used to be friends no longer speak to each other after one or the other went out on strike or crossed the picket line to work.

• The presence of the MOU can make casual conversations between bosses and their people complicated. Any changes in job duties, days off, and the various normal gray areas about worklife now become subject to the MOU. “Can I leave a bit early today?” can turn into a pointed conversation between the shop steward and the supervisor, which the employee is not involved in.

• The negotiation of subsequent union contracts can get hopelessly bogged down in the primary sticking point: everything on the table has some connection to Wages and Benefits. Individual benefits that could be agreed upon in a non-union organization in one meeting now became part of a larger collection of items that must be hashed out over weeks or months of angry, frustrated discussions.

I have heard employees tell me the union saved their careers, leveled the playing field for pay and promotions, eliminated bullying or discrimination, enforced consequences, and raised their salaries.

I have heard other employees tell me they wished they had never agreed to a union, especially after “paying a lot of dues for years and years for not much in return.” Or they got laid off soon after being hired, because while they may have a better work ethic and way more skills than their colleague, that person was senior to them, and the union followed the “last hired, first fired” rule.

As they say in the car business, “Your Mileage May Vary” or in Latin, “Caveat Emptor,” otherwise known as “Let the Buyer Beware.”

Eight Ways Why Your Library is Like a Hospital
The similarities are fascinating.
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Okay, so the library doesn’t take insurance and we aren’t doing surgery in the stacks, but there are some parallels between the two environments, especially when viewed from the eyes of the patients and patrons. Consider these similarities in the hospital and library environments:

1. Patients and patrons bring their problems, issues, and life struggles through the doors.

Hospitals and libraries can’t pick their customers; they get who walks in the door. People coming into an Emergency Room and into a library may have a lot of the same life struggles: homelessness, mental health issues, substance use addictions, hunger, pain, illness, hopelessness. They come into our medical and library buildings because they want help, support, comfort, information, a cure, or at least a solution, as to what ails them.

2. Patients and patrons may not be there by choice.

The guys with the pain that radiates across the left side of his lower back can’t figure out what’s going on and doesn’t want to go to the doctor waits until he is agony to stagger in the building. One hospital admit and one kidney stone later, he is wishing he was home.

“Go do your homework at the library and don’t come home until it’s finished!” says the working and frazzled mom to her teenager. So the kid trudges from the school into the library and drops her backpack on a table and grudgingly pulls out her assignments. She’d rather be at the mall with her friends.

3. Patients and patrons may have never been to the facility, ever.

“I’m here for a medical test they said I need. The parking garage was huge, I’m late, and I don’t know where to go. Information Desk? Check In Desk? Where are the elevators? Am I even in the right building? There are either no signs or they’re just really confusing. Maybe I should just go back home and try this on another day.”

The first time for everything can be nerve-wracking. Libraries can be bright, vibrant, energizing places, with a lot for the eyes and ears to take in. “Which floor do I need to go to get help for my question about my government benefits? Everyone looks busy and moving with a purpose. Who can I talk to? Will they even want to help me? I don’t want to bother the employees but I’m confused.”

4. Patients and patrons don’t know how the facility operates.

“What does my insurance cover and how come I still have to pay so much of a co-pay? What do you mean you don’t accept my insurance? Can you still treat me if I don’t have insurance?”

“What’s free? What costs? Should I even care how my tax dollars are being used? Does the library still charge for overdue books? How much does it cost to get a library card? Can I use the Internet for free? Will they keep track of the sites I go to? How come they charge me to make copies? Can I really check out a laptop, a tablet, or a video game controller for free?”

5. Patients and patrons may not always get the positive outcome or the solutions to the answers they seek.

“What do you mean I have high blood pressure and need to take medication? I feel fine! I’m not taking any stupid pills.”

“Why won’t you help me file my income taxes? What can’t you give me free legal advice and help me sue the local government here? What do you mean you don’t have any eclipse glasses? The local TV news said you could get them here.”

6. Patients and patrons are not always satisfied with the quality of the product or the services they received.

“The doctor was very rude to me. No bedside manner whatsoever. She told me I was pre-diabetic and I needed to lose weight. She’s not the boss of me. I’ll eat whatever I want!”

“Those people at the library kicked my kid out for supposedly staring a fight with another kid from his school. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t start the fight; he just finished it. No one tells my little angel what to do.”

7. Patients and patrons are not always right.

“I read on Google that I can treat my dangerously high cholesterol with these special minerals from Australia.”

“The lady from the library told me I didn’t have to pay any way, way overdue fines and I that I could still check out these ten books. No, I don’t remember her name and I don’t see her working today.”

8. Patients and patrons may not appreciate the little things that are done for them, on their behalf.

People coming into healthcare environments - either as patients or family members of patients - are often under a lot of stress. They can forget that the people providing medical services are doing the best they possibly can on their behalf.

Library employees are not paid the same as medical doctors and nurses, yet they contribute to the good of their communities in important, if different ways. A little courtesy for the efforts of both would be greatly appreciated. Sometimes, you have to give yourself your own praise, if it didn’t come from the person you just helped.

(This content was originally published on January 1, 2025 in Information Today. https://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Eight-Ways-Your-Library-Is-Like-a-Hospital-166690.asp)

The "Joyless Library" Work Culture
It's a big reason why library employees don't want to come to work.
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

It’s hard to buy into the concept that work should be “fun.” Work is often hard. It’s often tiring. It is the rare public-contact employee who leaps from bed, races to the workspace, and can’t wait to start serving others. (Even if they actually start out like this, this uber-enthusiasm fades in time.) There is a reason we pay people to leave their homes and sit or stand in the same place for eight to ten hours. It’s called work, not fun or play or freedom.

But consider how many things we do, as adults, for no money at all. We work at night and on the weekends for our churches, kids’ schools, and community groups. We donate time, energy, expertise, and our own money to causes we believe in. We coach our kids in sports. We volunteer to help people less fortunate than us in soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and domestic violence shelters. We volunteer in hospitals and hospices, animal shelters, and help our neighbors after natural disasters.

And all of this we do for no money, because it feels good to do good. I would say that these efforts can bring us joy. We can define joy as a feeling that gives us great pleasure, often in response to something we have done, either for ourselves or others. (Seeing my daughter gives me great joy, as does watching baseball, walking one of my seven dogs, finishing a gym workout, and writing.)

So the question is, can working at the library give you joy? The answer is yes, maybe, and no, and a lot of that depends on who you work with and for, and how you perceive your job. We can define a “Joyless Library” as a place where the staff doesn't feel connected, supported, protected, or praised. Let’s break down each one:

Connected: The people who I work with and for, on a daily basis, know things about me and I know things about them. We share our interests, hobbies, beliefs, and our exasperations, especially when Life Isn’t Going Smoothly. We don’t grip constantly, overshare, and we don’t cram our opinions down each others’s throats. We have achieved a nice balance between expressing things about our professional lives and our personal lives, since both matter.

Supported: We take care of each as co-workers and we expect to be taken care of by our bosses. We don’t avoid work by ever saying, “That’s not in my job description.” We pitch in to help each other and our bosses’ requests, especially when things get hectic. Our bosses don’t overwork us.

Protected: Our co-workers and bosses never embarrass us in front of the patrons. We don’t air our personal dirty laundry in front of others. We take each other aside and speak in confidence when we have issues. We expect our bosses to give us feedback, in private, not “constructive criticism,” especially in front of patrons or co-workers.

Praised: We want to hear “Good job!” when we deserve it, from both our bosses and co-workers. We want to be told that what we do matters, especially when what we do when working with patrons is complex, emotional, or time-consuming. We want it to be sincere, not dismissive. We want to know we have added value to our patron and co-worker relationships. We aren’t “just here for the paycheck” and it’s not our “only reward for showing up.”

The presence of these four critical factors makes work bearable. Their absence, especially when not even one of them are present, makes work unbearable. People quit (which is often a relief, even when it creates an uncertain future) or worse, feel like they can’t quit (chained in economic handcuffs) and so they have to just show up and hope things get better, someday. This usually only happens when certain toxic, bullying, lazy, annoying, or passive-aggressive bosses or co-workers leave and are replaced with people who truly recognize the value of the four factors from above.

So how do we create a library workspace where these four exist in equal, positive, and affirming amounts? By doing them, for each other, every day. By having our library leaders do them, for their employees, every day. These four create joy. These four make it more likely staff not only stay at their libraries, but their good feelings rub off on their service encounters with patrons. (nothing is more more miserable in a public-contact job when you don’t want to be there and a customer goes out of his or her way to ruin your day). They nurture harmony and the desire to do work, hard or easy.

I’ll list them again: Connected. Supported. Protected. Praised.

The Power of Rewards and Recognitions: Library staffers work for more than just money
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Consider working in an environment where you only hear from your bosses when you screw up and never when you do well.

It seems we have had to become a nation of self-rewarders, patting ourselves on the backs for our accomplishments at work, instead of waiting for our bosses, co-workers, or patrons to do it. The list of employees who say, “My boss constantly praises me for my efforts,” is often painfully short.

In reality, some library directors, managers, or supervisors say they are just too busy and/or distracted to see the value of formally recognizing and rewarding their people. “They know I appreciate their efforts. Do I have to tell them every single day?” The short answer is yes, with sincerity, with timeliness, and with impact.

Business bestseller Bob Nelson has written extensively on how to reward and motivate employees. He suggests the benefit of formal incentive programs, giving physical rewards to employees. These small but regular gifts, that can come from the library’s leader’s budget, and that go far beyond, “Good job. See you tomorrow.”

The subject of incentive programs always seems to fall to the bottom of a leader’s to-do list. This is a shame on many levels, because people will work hard for more than just pay. What about giving employees gift cards, gas cards, movie passes, dinner certificates, the special close-to-the-front-entrance parking space, and the most popular incentives of all - working only a half-day at full pay or getting a discretionary day off?

When library employees are publicly noticed and heralded for what they have done, they’ll do more because they feel good doing it and they know it’s important. And when they get singled out for their energy and enthusiasm, hard work might just lead to more hard work.

Non-monetary rewards can come from a multitude of sources: reading a positive patron email at an all-hands staff meeting; having the an elected official or Library Board member formally recognize employees at a training meeting; writing a blogpost about the employee for the library’s website or Facebook page; or announcing the employee’s promotion or anniversary date of hire.

Employees who say, “Don’t make a big deal about my birthday,” secretly like it when folks make a big deal about their birthday – cake, cards, balloons tied to the chair, confetti on their desks, and hearing that song with their name in it.

Napoleon said, “An army travels on its stomach.” Today, he’d know that a work team is often motivated by food. More money is great, extra benefits are fine, and time off is very important, but food has always been a powerful motivator for employees.

Whether it’s pizzas, salads, and sodas on Fridays, doughnuts for the weekend staff, bagels and coffee on Mondays, or cake and cupcakes at the monthly employee birthday lunches, the secret to using goodies as a reward is to be random with both the selections and the dates. If employees get the same tired choices each week after month, their enthusiasm wanes quickly.

Any employee reward, from food to formal recognition programs, should be as episodic as your luck during a casino visit. If you won all the time, the casino would close; if you lost all the time, the casino would close. Success in the casino business comes when the players don’t expect their triumphs. As such, the element of surprise seems to work best when it comes to employee reward programs.

Public recognition is necessary, motivating, and builds teamwork. Whether it’s a gift card or a years-of-service award presented by a city, county, or library bigwig, employee rewards work.

(Originally published at https://stevealbrecht.substack.com/p/the-power-of-rewards-and-recognitions)

Approaches to Library Panic Alarms
Using tech to keep staff safe
By Dr. Steve Albrecht
Cross-posted from https://stevealbrecht.substack.com/p/approaches-to-library-panic-alarms

Getting emergency help at the press of a button is an issue that some libraries are still discussing, others have a system in place that sort of works, and still others have a process, policy, and response that really works. The level of sophistication of both the panic buttons and more importantly, what happens when the button is pushed, needs a careful review and often, the need for improvements.

I have consulted with libraries on security issues for high-stress or even dangerous encounters with out-of-control patrons. They tell me they have panic buttons at their main Circulation or Information Desks and either their security guards, or their PICs or supervisors, or an alarm company will get an immediate notification. I say, “Great! Can we test the actual button to see what happens?”

This is when they and I learn the button was disconnected several years ago, the button is broken, the security guards don’t get notified, there is no supervisor’s response, and the contract with the alarm company was discontinued last spring. This hardly gives comfort to the desk staff. (I’m reminded of a lawsuit where a fire sprinkler contractor wanted to cut costs and make more profit, so he simply super-glued the fire sprinkler valves to the ceilings without actually connecting them to the water supply. I think he went to prison for that fraud and safety hazard as well.)

Some of my library clients are in the “wait and see” mode for panic alarms, often waiting for the “Big Event” to give them the momentum, motivation, and reason to spend the money on a panic alarm system. Since I also teach substance abuse awareness for managers and supervisors of safety-sensitive employees (truck drivers, transportation operators, etc.), this is like waiting for the alcohol-or drug-addicted employee to crash into a busload of nuns and orphans before you take action on stopping the issue.

Let’s break down some potential panic button solutions:

1). The library can install a panic button that rings to the back offices, the security guard station (if applicable), sets off a silent strobe light in the back hallways, or alerts the leadership via an emergency text or desk PC/Intranet notification. This should initiate a response that is safe and measured, meaning before dialing 9-1-1 or rushing forward to see what the concern is, the library leaders should look first at any camera views that shows what is happening at the desk. It may be just as useful to call 9-1-1 from their position of safety, before going forward, getting involved in the patron contact, and then having to either retreat to a safe place to call 9-1-1 or sending someone else to go to do it.

2). When pressed, the panic button notifies the leadership team electronically (ringer installed in the back offices or by text/email) as well as the system calls an offsite alarm company who monitors the button’s activation. The alarm company often provides two responses: they will call the library and ask for an agreed-upon code word or phrase to make sure the situation is safe. Not hearing that code, they call the police on behalf of the library and explain that it is a potentially dangerous or armed situation. Or, the alarm company will dial 9-1-1 for the library immediately after getting the panic button notification and ask police to be dispatched.

There are disadvantages to both: calling the library first, instead of 9-1-1, can delay the police response while the alarm dispatcher tries to figure out what is going on. Then again, calling the police before they know what is really happening can send the Big Blue Calvary barreling into the library, looking to prevent an active shooter when that isn’t the real problem. This is especially stressful when it’s a false alarm and the button gets pushed either accidentally or not for a potentially violent act.

The false alarm rate for properly-positioned panic alarms tends to be low. (They are mounted under the counter in a place where they won’t be bumped by a knee or chair). This is important because some alarm companies and many law enforcement agencies will charge a false-alarm fee after a certain number of mistakes. This can get expensive and it can turn into the “Librarian Who Cried Wolf” when there was no wolf at all.

Library staff who are introduced to panic alarms need to know they should be used only when there is a real concern for violence against themselves or another patron, by someone who is threatening, armed, or mentally unstable. Before pressing a panic button, staff needs to use their best de-escalation/conflict resolution skills (something I have been doing for libraries for 25 years), and only use the panic button as if it was a 9-1-1 call they would make from their home. Staff and the library leaders can develop code words to get more help when dealing with angry/frustrated/uncooperative patrons, and then use the panic button for when those attempts fail and the person escalates toward violence.

There is a trend at some libraries where there have been a lot of threatening conduct by patrons to give the floor staff personal panic alarms. These wearable devices either ring a loud alarm that can be heard in the area, notify the leadership team, ring to an alarm company monitoring service, or some combination of these.

At a minimum, installing any panic button system, mounted under the desk or personal alarms for staff, needs a written policy that explains the location, when to push it, and what is the expected response from either the leaders in the back offices, the alarm company, the police, or all three. (Email me at DrSteve@DrSteveAlbrecht.com for a copy of one I give to my libraries.)

Besides the policy, staff needs to be briefed (and de-briefed after they press the button and the solution-makers rush in). This is especially true for new-hires, part-time or weekend desk staff, and anyone else who may need to work the desk and wonder what the little button under the counter does.

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

When I started my library security training journey back in 2000, my knowledge of what went on in libraries as an operation was limited, and my understanding of what happened in libraries regarding crime, violence, and patron behavioral issues wasn’t much more. I was grateful that my first primary training client sent me on a field trip of sorts, starting out at libraries in Northern California, into the Bay Area, and finishing in Southern California, Los Angeles, and ending in my then-home city, San Diego.

I talked to library staff, library directors, managers, supervisors, PICs, Friends of the Library bookstore volunteers, security guards, library board members, and when possible, the local cops. Each of these gave me my first education as to the challenges library leaders and employees faced.

I taught my security workshops in Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Diego. I presented at city and county libraries and law libraries, in downtown, urban, and suburban locations.

I have lived in the Midwest for seven years now, but I keep in close touch with my parents in San Diego and still have a lot of friends there too. Library security news follows me everywhere and I see the same stories that perhaps you do: crime and violence problems at the main branch of the Oakland library; fentanyl drug overdoses around the San Francisco Civic Center library; the temporary closure of the Long Beach main library due to harassment of staff; the one-day closure of the Antioch (CA) Library due to staff fears about on-going crimes, vandalism, and violence; security issues at Los Angeles city and county libraries; a homicide shooting in front of the San Diego downtown library.

It’s hard to look at this list of issues in our most populous state in the county and conclude California is at the forefront of library safety and security, for its staff, facilities, and patrons. The safety of library staff is now a significant issue with the employee unions

Here are five primary reasons for this growing trend of crime and behavior problems in and around California libraries:

1). Most homeless people in the United States are in California.

The number seems to be around 150,000 people. The weather makes life on the streets somewhat easier (if that’s even possible) in January in Los Angeles when compared to Chicago.

Some cities, with San Francisco as the most visible example, pay some homeless people a stipend of $500 to $750 per month.

Libraries have always attracted homeless patrons, most of whom want to be there and don’t cause problems. The small number who are chronically mentally ill and drug/alcohol addicted create the most incidents and that makes many occasional patrons feel like “the homeless ruin the library experience for me,” even though that is not the real truth.

2). The explosion of fentanyl.

This drug makes the prevalence of crack cocaine back in the 80s and 90s look like breakfast cereal. It’s cheap to make, easy to smuggle into the US from China and Mexico, and cheap to buy -- unfortunately making it very profitable. Fentanyl is so prevalent it is now laced into marijuana joints, cocaine, opiate pills, Ecstasy/Molly/MDMA pills, and even street-sold Ritalin or Adderall pills. Almost every street drug used today is contaminated with fentanyl. Drug overdoses kill over 100,000 people each year and are now the leading cause of death for 18 to 45-year-olds.

Back twenty years ago, it would be quite unusual to find the overdose recovery drug Narcan in a library, let alone have staff trained to use it. Now, you can get Narcan over the corner at a pharmacy and some libraries have used it to save lives before paramedics could get there.

3). The passage of California Proposition 47 in 2014.

Over the last ten years, there have been significant changes in how crimes are classified, arrested for, and prosecuted in the Golden State. This ballot issue was designed to ease jail and prison overcrowding, “put more cops on the street fighting real crime,” and ease the burdens on our criminal court system. What it did was de-criminalize a lot of crimes that used to be arrestable offenses, like retail store petty theft, drug possession, and even physical assaults.

As one example, possession of illegal drugs used to be a felony, and being under the influence of illegal drugs was a misdemeanor. Now drug possession is a misdemeanor and being under the influence is an infraction, the equivalent of a speeding ticket.

Grand theft in California used to be a felony crime. It’s now considered to be a misdemeanor, even for the stealing of most items over the previous dollar amount of $950.

Jail and prison overcrowding was influenced by “three strikes” laws. Many of those have been reduced and California has even closed some state prisons. This means more previously violent people who were in prison than are not now.

All this means less enforcement by police overall, including either no response or an hours or even days-late response for low-level crimes that happen in or near the library.

4). Not enough police or security officers to cover crimes and threatening behavior problems in libraries.

To safeguard its 72 branches, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Security Services Division (SECSD) provides uniformed police officers, unarmed security officers who are city employees, and contract private security officers. (The LA Public Library pays LAPD $4.5 million for their security services.)

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office provides uniformed deputies to provide security to LA County’s 86 library branches. (I was told there 8 to 10 deputies, who must cover 3,024 square miles. I’m not a math whiz, but this is not a great ratio.)

There are not enough police officers and sheriff’s deputies in this country to respond even to emergency calls, let alone minor behavior-based crimes. In California, police staffing is way down, for a variety of reasons, including the high cost of housing in the largest cities (the median house price in my former home-city San Diego is $970,000). Also, not many people want to apply to do that job anymore, because: it’s dangerous (a cop is shot in the US every 27 hours); not very popular (if you want to be admired, become a firefighter); and not always well-paid.

5). Apathy about library safety and security by political leaders.

It’s not that many elected or appointed officials in California don’t care about libraries or library employees, it’s just that they don’t care as much about what happens in or around the library unless there is a significant negative event. Just like they don’t always pay attention to what happens at the local Parks and Recreation facility unless there is a problem. Politicians are driven by events, by bad optics that reflect poorly on themselves and their governing bodies, by what gets expanded and continuing media attention, and by what triggers a lot of voters to call their offices and complain.

What does all this mean, if you work in a library in California or any other state?

• Keep on doing your job, focusing on your personal and collective safety every day as you do.
• Use Security Incident Reports as leverage to get better police responses, policy changes, and equipment improvements.
• Keep the library involved as much as possible in discussions with electeds.
• Use your Library Boards and employee unions/associations to educate the politicians as to what is really happening in your branches.

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

SUBMITTED QUESTION

I’m a security director for a large library district. I’ve got a rural library director who feels unsafe with drug activity around, and in fact, a late night bullet accidentally hit the library door a couple months ago. The director bought a TASER, with library funds, to protect herself. I’ve looked through your rural chapter 7 in your The Safe Library book and sent a few pages to her from that.

Is a TASER advisable or not advisable? Could it be lethal? Pepper spray or wasp spray preferred? If a staff person has a TASER, does the library need a policy? Especially if the TASER was bought with library funds?

The Board has questions, and I’ve referred them to their county lawyer, but I thought I might get some insight from you as well?

ANSWER

Dear Security Director:

Thanks for your note. Did she buy an actual TASER (which either shoots a dart or has probes attached to it) or another version that causes a shock when pressed against the person? They are not lethal unless the person is soaked in gasoline or another flammable liquid, in which case there is a danger of fire. They rarely disrupt heart rhythms, but can cause problems if responding police handcuff a person using meth and place him in restraints (causing excited delirium death),

In choosing between OC Pepper spray and bear/wasp spray, I would never recommend the latter because it can cause lasting chemical burns and is not designed for use on humans. OC Pepper spray is designed to stop people and not cause lasting injuries. I have taught OC Pepper use to civilian employees (park rangers, parking enforcers, lifeguards, and code compliance officers) for decades and it is effective. The two biggest downsides are that it can temporarily contaminate the whole room when used indoors, and that it is not often carried by employees when urgently needed. (Pocket is good, purse or desk drawer in the other room is not.)

Back to the TASER, any employee carrying it should be able to demonstrate its safe use, having gone through a self-training class (online video) or even better, a training briefing by a law enforcement officer. There needs to be a written policy about how it is transported to and from the library, stored, and protected from access by patrons (especially kids). There are ethical considerations about its use: not to be used by people who aren't trained; not to be used to injure/torture someone who is no longer a threat; and it needs to have a written security incident report anytime it is deployed.

My argument against e-weapons is that they can be taken from the person and used by the crook against them. If the kind she has requires her to touch the suspect with it, she can get disarmed. Some bad people might be scared off by the sound or appearance of the device, but most mentally ill people or predatory people will not. 

PS - A bit of historical trivia: the founder of TASER was a NASA researcher who named his device in 1974 after an adventurous boy and main character in science fiction novels of the early 1900’s named Tom Swift. TASER = Tom Swift And His Electric Rifle (first published in 1911).

By Dr. Steve Albrecht.

Thank you, Bold and Brave Librarians! We asked and you shared! My hands trembled as I complied your List of Yuck.

As you review what your colleagues have “curated” here, you can either take some comfort that either your library has not had it as bad as others, or enjoy our “congratulations," because your library came out near the top of the List of Awful.

What are the Worst, Grossest, Scariest, or Oddest Things Ever Found in the Stacks or in the Book Drop for Your Library?

“We had a full bag of apple pie filling dumped in the book drop. What a mess! The book drop was sticky for months!”

“By far the weirdest and most disgusting thing I've found in a book was a piece of raw bacon! Oddly, I was taking a library class several years ago and this question came up. I thought I had the weirdest things, hands down. Turned out that 3 other people in the class had found raw bacon in books, too! Bacon! ”

“When I worked in a public library some teenage troublemakers tossed a lit sparkler into the book drop. It singed some books but luckily didn't start a fire. We also had a very overdue book returned coated in chocolate cake. Another time, in a combined elementary/middle school, a student came in with a ziplock baggie full of ice cubes. She had walked into a pole in the playground during recess and the ice was for her forehead. As her class was leaving I asked her, "Where's your baggie?" She had no idea. We found it (full of water) inside an upright I Spy book on the shelves.”

“Once a group of very sneaky students came into our school library with raw eggs, which they snuck in between the books on the shelves. When we pushed the books up straight you can imagine the mess! We never found out who did it either.”

“Books covered in blood returned to the checkout desk by a person who looked like they had recently been in a fight, an entire hotdog and big gulp in the book drop, (what a waste!) and of course, the dreaded bedbugs and cockroaches.”

“I discovered a dead frog used as a bookmark in a returned book once. It was very sad.”

“That beats the whole cupcake (including frosting) used as a bookmark.”

“Patron brought a (recently) dead skunk in the library. Wanted information on taxidermy.”

“We had a metal tool that looked to be from a veterinarian's office...it said `tick remover’ on it.”

“We've had a dead bird (who was not alive when he entered), pop cans, and dirty socks in our book drop.”

“Once we had an ice cream cone in our book drop. Thankfully it only damaged one book.”

“School librarian here. My first year collecting textbooks in a high school, checking each for their condition, in just one day, I saw drawings of flaccid penises, erect penises, dancing penises, ejaculating penises, happy penises, sad penises, etc., ad nauseam. And I had one student at the end of the day, trying to describe his book to me, saying, You know, it was the one with the penis drawn in it? I lost my mind: the one? the ONE????”

“Ah yes, the penises! I remember trying to erase them from books when I worked in schools.”

“Carefully drawn cartoons of phalluses riding bicycles. 🚲 🚲 🚲”

“Someone's birth control patch was stuck to the back of a novel I was shelving. I washed my hands for a WHILE after that one.”

“This happened to a library where friends of mine worked and/or frequented: a woman was dumping mayo, ketchup, and other condiments into the Ada County library (Boise, ID) book drop. She was also a regular in an agriculture store I worked at during the time she was doing all of this. My coworkers knew I was working on my MLS and started calling me the Librarianator.” Link to one of the many articles about her (even made it to CBS News): Police bust 74-year-old for depositing mayo in book drop... 

“Late one Halloween night in the mid-90s, I received a call from local police dispatch. I was asked to come to unlock the library as the local fire department were on scene responding to smoke in our book drop.(I was middle management, but lived blocks, not miles from the library.) I arrived at the library a few minutes later in my pajamas. Fire Department investigation determined a paper bag of feces was set on fire and dropped in the book return. Definitely tricks and no treats that year.”

“A few of the noteworthy items i've either witnessed in person or tertiary handled questions/fallout over the years:

"a) Raw turkey in the book drop, the whole thing, smooshed to fit. It seems to have been dropped off the evening/night before thanksgiving. By the time staff found it several days later, everything in the book drop (a lot of stuff) was ruined and the smell was horrific. 

"b) Mucus (boogers). Over the course of a year or so, someone had been leaving bloody boogers in multiple sections of novels returned on the rollers, always during rush hour when staff don't have much time to spot check inside the books. It took a long time and concerted effort to catch the person, who I kept hearing referred to as "The Booger Bandit.” 

"c) Cat urine. It was all over a book so it was billed. Pet-related incidents are common, but the interesting thing here was that the customer denied that it had been damaged upon return, insisting that a cat had somehow gotten into the book drop. It's a double-door system with a long chute, and there had been no cat found by staff inside the closed book drop closet. The customer doubled down, said that it must have disappeared somehow, like magic. Magic cat? Yes, says the customer. Then they decided that a certain librarian was out to get them and had gotten into the book drop, pulled out their return, and urinated on it, with cat urine. I just took notes on everything the customer said and handed it off up the chain of command. I don’t have enough hands for the amount of facepalm needed on that one."

“I have thankfully not found anything imminently harmful like drug paraphernalia, but when city Public Works moved a trash can next to our book drop (which was just across the parking lot from a busy bowling alley), the amount of beer bottles (some with beer inside) and food wrappers increased. It was easily fixed."

"The saddest thing I have ever found was a litter of kittens, young enough their eyes were still closed. Two of the four made it to the vet's office. Sadly, none survived. I cannot for the life of me figure out why the owner of the cats thought it a good idea to put them there. (and no, no momma cat could have opened the drop by herself).   Those poor kittens.”

“Pot, meth, pills, crack, various pipes, used needles, full and empty alcohol containers, mostly in the stacks, but ocassionally found on the ground or in landscaping. I walked into a cloud of meth smoke in the restroom. Items soiled with bodily fluids/solids (diapers, sanitary napkins, tampons, condoms, tissues): All the above, but dealt with by either janitorial and/or building maintenance. Mostly blockages caused by:clothing, needles or other items shoved down into toilets. A serial cough drop user who stored used drops in-between pages. 

"Notes threatening staff and other patrons.

"Not books, but walls, signs, benches, lamp posts and fences tagged.

"Stick with axe and hunting knife duct-taped to form a home-made 'halberd.' Various sharpened sticks.

"A mouse caught in the sorter. I had to review the video to determine if it was accidental or intentional. It was accidental--no idea what possessed the mouse - making him decide to jump onto the sorting belt.

New iPhone, large uncashed paycheck, cash, credit cards.”

“I'm in a suburban library system in California. The community is ranked one of the safest, best places to live overall. However, the location that generates most of the incidents is in a core neighborhood, and within walking distance of a shelter. Some of it could be attributed to that and the issues faced by the unsheltered. Most of the incidents are from the last five years, and coincidentally so has evidence that methamphetamine and fentanyl use has increased locally. I also think we receive an overflow of people from a larger metro area adjacent to us, as authorities put pressure on them to the point that they migrate to us.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention the arson. It started with us finding evidence of small fires around the facility. Then, one night, someone continually tossed burning books down from the elevated parking into our chiller/HVAC system until it caught the enclosure on fire. Luckily, it was far enough from the library building and it did not spread. It was caught on security camera and it burned for at least 30 minutes before someone called the Fire Dept.

"There are also more serious incidents and some with pending legal cases that I've left out for obvious reasons.

"I will also mention that the two adjacent library systems have dealt with far worse, so we consider ourselves lucky in that respect.

"I feel guilty for sharing all these bad incidents, and the negative associations it creates with libraries. However, if there's anything positive about this, I will say that it illustrates that we have some of the best staff, who handle incidents professionally, while maintaining excellent service and remaining compassionate and caring people, despite the challenges.”

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

As one of my friends, who has the unenviable job of cleaning airplane bathrooms between flights, likes to say, “People are nasty.”

The shelves in your library or your oh-so-inviting book drop seem to draw things you wouldn’t want to discuss at a party. What solid or semi-fluid objects have been “donated,” abandoned, or discarded at your library?

You may have been an eyewitness to these things - meaning you saw them personally - or you may have been an “earwitness” to them, meaning you heard about them, or they have taken on mythical status in your library, and are passed down to the new-hires like so much iconic-symbolic-allegorical lore.

Here is a list for you to choose from. (Try not to be too disgustingly-specific in your descriptions.) Please put your answers in the comments below this post! (Here's the LINK if you're coming from somewhere else.)

1. Needles or drug paraphernalia (pot pipes, empty baggies with powdery residue).

2. Items soiled with bodily fluids/solids (diapers, sanitary napkins, tampons, condoms, tissues).

3. Hate-filled or threatening notes (written in crayon, typed, carved into something).

4. Graffiti-covered books (tagger “art" or gang signs).

5. Bullets, knives, sharp objects, weapons.

6. Mice, rats, spiders, insects, snakes (living or dead).

7. Expensive stuff (jewelry, watches, cash money, big uncashed check, winning lotto ticket used as a bookmark, rare coins, car keys).

8. Other

[A shorter version of this essay ran as an op-ed in the February 2, 2024 online edition of The Seattle Times. Click here for the link to that version. https://shorturl.at/txFKW. See also "U.S. Department of Education Issues New Resource for School Administrators on Importance of Safe Firearm Storage" - Campus Safety]

I have spent the past 32 years of my life and career trying to keep people safe from violence in the workplace, in our K-12 schools, colleges, and universities; in healthcare facilities; and in city and county government agencies that serve taxpayers (including libraries and utilities). I have worked diligently to educate public and private sector employees about the real dangers of domestic violence, especially when it crosses over from home to work. 

I have interviewed three workplace violence murderers in prison, something no other author I know of has done. Their primary motive for what they did (killing a total of 12 people) was simple: they wanted revenge. We can limit that possibility based on how we treat people, as co-workers, employees, students, ratepayers, patients, and people receiving services from organizations. That’s why so many of my library security workshops talk about the real value of empathy, patience, and listening skills, even when the other person isn’t cooperating very much.

I have trained dozens of K-12 school districts and hundreds of school employees in school violence prevention approaches, including helping with the creation of District-wide Threat Assessment Teams (TATs).

If I had just one wish, where I could snap my fingers and make it happen instantly to prevent school shootings, it would not be about anti-bullying campaigns (which range in success from a lot to not at all); or more School Resource Officers (hard to do today with such low staffing in law enforcement agencies); or better physical security at our schools (the locked, staffed “closed campus” model works best, especially as students enter and leave). No, those aren’t my primary concerns.

If I could make it happen, I would demand that every single parent who has a kid at a K-12 school and who owns a gun in their home stores it safely. 

Even a quick review of the over 344 school shootings in 2023 (a stunning number, as collected by the K-12 School Shootings Database at https://k12ssdb.org) paints the terrible picture clearly: The majority of K-12 school shooting perpetrators under the age of 18 get the guns they use from their homes.

As a library security consultant and trainer since 2000, I’m reminded of the Clovis, NM library shooting on August 28, 2017, that took the lives of two female library employees and wounded four others, including a 10-year-old boy. The shooter, 16-year-old Nathan Jouett, had originally intended to go to Clovis High School where he had been bullied, to shoot students there. He went into the library first, to use the bathroom, then came out and shot six people. He got the gun from home, from his father’s unlocked gun safe. (Yes, I put those words in bold for emphasis.) 

I researched the Jouett case extensively, talking with the plaintiff’s lawyer who sued the young man’s therapist and father for negligence, reviewing the court transcripts, reading the depositions of the court-appointed child psychiatrist, and even Jouett’s prison deposition. The ease with which he acquired the gun and ammunition is stunning.

Guns in a gun shop are expensive and only available to people over a certain age, and in some states, after a background check. Many homes (too many homes) have unsecured handguns, rifles, and shotguns, sitting in closets, clothing drawers, nightstands, desks, and boxes in garages. Too many parents (most often the men) mistakenly believe, “My kid knows not to go into my sock drawer and open that box marked `Glock’.” 

This is foolish, wishful thinking, proven tragically wrong when that kid gets an unsecured handgun, rifle, or shotgun from his or her own home and takes it to school, either with murderous intent or to scare away the students who have bullied him or her.

Think that can’t happen with a pre-teen? From a January 6, 2023 NBC News online story: “The 6-year-old boy who seriously wounded his teacher at a Virginia elementary school in January said in the aftermath that `I did it’ and `I got my mom's gun last night,’ according to newly unsealed court documents.” (https://tinyurl.com/ykr8sske)

In the aftermath of these tragedies, the parents are “in shock” as to what happened and why it did, and “saddened and surprised” that their own child used a gun from their home to commit these acts. “We thought they were locked up and that he or she didn’t have access. We never thought that in a million years this could ever happen…” The excuses are just that - excuses for failing to be vigilant, every single day that they own and store one or more firearms in their homes. 

So how can local libraries and even more so - school libraries - help stop this? By committing to a national campaign, in partnership with their nearby school districts, to put parents on notice that they have a legal, moral, and ethical duty to safely lock up every firearm type in their homes. And equally important, to give parents easy, inexpensive, and readily available safe gun storage solutions.

Posters at the school and campus-wide announcements aren’t enough. This effort will require our K-12 school districts to bring parents together, through on-campus meetings and even Zoom sessions, to educate them firmly and directly, that they must store their firearms.

Trigger locks (usually a cable with a key lock) are cheap to buy and easy to distribute to parents. How about asking the local gun safe vendors in our communities to provide reduced-rate gun safes (after getting a good-faith discount from their manufacturers)? You don’t need to buy a 600-pound gun safe, when a lockable gun box will do. Can we ask local gun shops and gun ranges to agree to provide as many free or inexpensive gun storage solutions as they can, as part of a gesture of goodwill to the entire community? 

How about asking our local law enforcement agencies to partner with our schools, school libraries, and city or county libraries to speak on campus and at specific library programs about this issue? “Attention Parents! Here is the problem: kids are stealing guns from home to use in shootings, often at their schools or in the streets, and often against other children. Your child could be a victim and if you don’t secure your firearms, your child may decide to be the shooter. Here are some free solutions you can get at the library, at the school district office, or your child’s school campus, right now, today: trigger locks, small gun safes, and lockable gun boxes. Please go home and protect your firearms, your children, our schools, and our communities.”

After three decades of trying to solve workplace violence and school violence problems, I’m weary from my efforts, which sometimes feel in vain. It’s time to ask our local libraries, school libraries, school districts, and local law enforcement agencies to come together and offer real, physical solutions that stop this issue of too-easy gun access in its tracks.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said it so well, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.” 

Kids are getting unsecured guns from their homes to use to shoot others and themselves. The solution is upstream but it’s not too far away to make it happen.

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

The trope we see most often in movies and TV crime shows is when a child is kidnapped, it’s done by the “creepy guy driving a van.” We tell our kids, as soon as they can know it, about “Stranger Danger,” and we spend our lives worrying about them, even into their adulthood. The truth is according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (www.MissingKids.org), most children are kidnapped from the custodial parent, who has the legal right to care for them, by the non-custodial parent, who does not.

These incidents either end in tragedy or at a minimum, with plenty of trauma for the anguished parent and the child, who, we hope, is far too young to fully comprehend what is happening and why. It takes an effort by police, social workers, and the courts to get the child safely back with the proper parent.

The other trope we see on the screen is the woman who can’t have a baby and steals one from the Neonatal Unit at the local hospital. Thankfully, these incidents are extremely rare because hospitals have realized the tremendous liability, emotional harm, and horrible publicity that comes with allowing this crime to occur because they didn’t have vigilant staff, effective security and access controls, and constant monitoring policies.

As a part of what hospitals do, the use color codes broadcasted over their public address (PA) systems to tell staff about emergency situations. These are often followed by the building location, as in, “Code Blue, Room 348,” which tells the medical staff to respond with a cardiac crash cart to the third floor. This is the most common building-code announcement, but there are other hospital codes for other events:

Code Red - Fire
Code Silver/Gray - Active Shooter
Code Orange - Radioactive, Chemical, or Biological Hazard
Code Green - Patient Elopement/Walkaway
Code Black - Bomb Threat
Code Violent - Violent Person
Code Pink - Abducted Infant or Young Child

The response plan in an actual Code Pink emergency in a hospital is to immediately send all available medical, security, and even administrative staff to their nearest exterior exit door and stop anyone from leaving with an infant or toddler.

Hospital Security officers coordinate with the supervisors and employees at the location where the child was last seen and take an immediate look at all available video camera footage to get a description of the abductor and the abductee. They will allow actual parents with children to leave and detain potential child-stealers for the police.

Now, let’s focus on the possibility of a stolen child at the library. Your library needs a similar plan, where staff has been trained (and has practiced it in an annual drill) to drop what they are doing when they hear a Code Pink PA announcement, move to their nearest entry/exit door, and stop anyone from leaving with a child. Only after it has been verified that the person is the bona fide parent, caregiver, or guardian, can they both be allowed to leave. If the person who has taken the child pushes past the library employee to escape but leaves the child behind, so much the better. We just want the kid to be safe and we can provide video footage and/or a detailed description of the perpetrator to the police when they arrive.

The following possible disturbing scenarios that could occur in your library, although they are rare:

• a child is kidnapped by a stranger in the library, either when the parent or caregiver is not looking or when the child has come to the library alone or with friends;
• a child encounters the kidnapper in the public restroom (or worse, when the kidnapper hides in the children’s-only restroom);
• a child is grabbed in the parking lot while walking toward the library.

What is most likely, however, is when the non-custodial parent and the custodial parent either meet in the library parking lot or inside the library to arrange the visitation exchange or to discuss why were won’t be a visitation exchange, and the kid gets taken by the non-custodial parent by force. (I have heard judges and family court advocates suggest the “local library is a good neutral meeting place” for these types of high-stress encounters.) It can be quite an emotional moment for all concerned when a tearful mom runs inside the library to tell the staff that her child has been taken by her former spouse or partner. This is definitely the time for a 9-1-1 call. In any potential crime or violent situation that happens inside or outside your library, you should provide the responding police with any parking lot camera video or internal camera video footage. Seconds and minutes matter.

Anyone who has followed my blog, podcast, and webinar content here at Library 2.0 knows I believe in the need for occasional practice drills for high-stress/high-threat emergency situations, e.g., Run-Hide drills for a potential active shooter; fire drills; and evacuations for gas leaks, power blackouts, and HazMat spills. These drills should be done before the library opens and with full staff awareness that they are going to occur. No need to surprise or frighten staff with a seemingly realistic situation that is actually a drill--those wrongly coordinated events offer a good way to terrorize, injure, or demoralize library staff, and they can create trust issues with management and don’t help with learning or compliance.

A pre-planned Code Pink drill can be done by telling staff about the incident through the library PA system (or megaphones used by supervisors or PICs, which can be brought, not surprisingly, on Amazon). The drill should start with the announcement, “Code Pink! Attention All Staff - Code Pink!” All staff should move quickly to the exits, including those accessible only through an internal staff hallway, since bad people may use the employees-only section of the library to get free. (Yet another reason to keep those non-public doors locked by key card access.) During the drill, other staff who are not guarding the doors can help with the search of the building, looking in kid-sized hiding places, unused rooms, restrooms, etc., until it’s time to end the exercise.

In a real event, all staff should block the exit doors and wait for a description of the missing child as it comes in. As soon as it becomes clear after a fast search that the child is definitely not in the library and is presumed missing, call 9-1-1. For anyone attempting to leave with a child, staff must ask the right questions to verify who is who, and if they have doubts, say, “You’ll have to stay here until the police arrive to sort this out.”

The reason for the Code Pink drill and real-time response is to stop the kidnapper before he or she can leave and to help get the child back. Time is critical in these actual events. Like other potentially bad things that may or may not ever happen at your library, it’s best to have a plan, a building-wide notification, staff training, and a drill in place to make it more likely we can stop this potentially tragic crime.