Borderline Patron Behaviors
Better Responses to the “Gray Areas”
Dr. Steve Albrecht

Lawyers talk about the “letter of the law” versus the “spirit of the law.” We can frame our response to patron behaviors the same way. The first one is not usually subject to interpretation; a violation of the rules or policies is what it is. The second approach is much less strict, with more consideration and flexibility.

We can think of the Code of Conduct as our response guide in these two ways. Some issues are distinct violations - a patron lighting a cigarette in the stacks would be one that is not a gray area. A patron sleeping in a chair in the stacks on a cool fall day would be a gray area. There are many of these in library life: do-or-do-not behaviors that are enforced as “strictly prohibited” versus “not a thing we generally allow, but maybe not that big of a deal.”

Enforcing our library fair and safe use policies and using the Code of Conduct as our roadmap takes some thought and requires discretion, first by staff, and then by the PICs, supervisors, managers, and other library leaders.

There are intentional patron behaviors and then there are unintentional patron behaviors. Both may have consequences, but not to the same degree. Some Code of Conduct or policy violations impact our library business in a serious, concerning way; others may irritate certain staffers and not bother employees at all. How we handle these gray areas either improves and supports our relationships with our patrons (and our staff) or hurts it.

We can empower library employees who provide services to our patrons and each other. We need to make better, more consistent, and less antagonizing decisions, on behalf of our patrons and our co-workers.

What are the behavioral Top Ten “Gray Areas” / “Hot Buttons” at your library, especially where staff is divided as to if or how to enforce them?

• sleeping, even after multiple warnings;

• eating and drinking;

• bags and luggage blocking aisles or left unattended;

• bicycles, scooters, or skateboards inside;

• “emotional comfort animals” that are not dogs;

• feet on the furniture;

• moving the furniture;

• speaker noise from tablets, laptops, or phones;

• hanging out in the restrooms;

• continuing hygiene issues;

• not sharing use of the Internet PCs, copiers, or printers;

• adult patrons using rooms they are not allowed to use - Children’s area, student study areas, teen rooms.

Other questions rise as to how, or if, we enforce these “Gray Areas”:

How do the demographics of the surrounding community and the neighborhood where the library is located impact our enforcement of the Code of Conduct?

How do we temper library staff who are committed to the “letter of the law” approach, without harming our patron relationships?

How can we encourage more library staff to enforce “gray area violations,” rather than just ignoring them and hoping they will just go away?

If these are questions you want to answer, I’m covering this this very week, during one of my usual twice-monthly webinars for Library 2.0. It’s Thursday, September 18, 2025 at 2:00pm EST.

Register at https://www.library20.com/gray-areas

Preventing Library Fires
What a Fire Chief Wants You to Know About
Dr. Steve Albrecht

On February 18, 2020, two 13-year-old boys lit a fire in the Children’s Section on the top floor of the two-story Porterville, CA library. They fled, as did the other patrons and staff in the building, who all got out safely before the entire building was leveled by the flames. (The Porterville Library housed 77,000 books and was built in 1953; it did not have fire sprinklers.)

Unfortunately, two Porterville Firefighters, Patrick Jones, 25, and Raymond Figueroa, 35, died while fighting the blaze. One of the teenagers was convicted of arson and served three months of a six-month sentence at a juvenile facility.

This tragic story should remind all library leaders and all library employees about our collective need to pay careful attention to a fire as a rare but catastrophic event (like the rare possibility of an active shooter in the library).

We need to have written and practiced plans in place and still prepare for an unlikely occurrence. The likelihood of a library fire can be estimated on a number of factors: staff vigilance about not allowing smoking or watching for signs of arson (especially possible from mentally ill patrons or children); the age of your facility (newly-constructed buildings are much less likely to catch fire or burn); the installation or absence of water sprinklers, smoke, and heat sensors; a building-wide fire alarm system with audible alarms and a public address system to be used to notify all staff and patrons to evacuate; and the proximity of the fire department and its number of staff.

This last issue is the most surprising to people. According to a 2014 report from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), about 70 percent of America’s firefighters are volunteers, and 85 percent of the nation’s fire departments are all or mostly volunteer. The smallest communities — those with fewer than 10,000 residents — are almost always served by volunteer departments (https://bit.ly/38cfWbL). The majority of fire stations in the US are staffed by a fulltime, paid Fire Chief, one to three Assistant or Battalion Chiefs, and the rest is made up of volunteer firefighters. For rural libraries, there may be a substantial distance and delayed response time by an all-volunteer Fire Department.

As library leaders consider the vexing issue of a building fire, they should discuss and verify:

• The marked location of evacuation routes, for patrons in the front and employees in the rear.

• Moving children, elderly, or disabled patrons out of the building, quickly and safely.

• Having more than one fire drill per year (follow our K-12 schools, who do several).

• Being vigilant of any hazardous materials (Hazmat) in storage areas, janitorial closets, kitchens or break rooms.

• Keeping all gas, electrical, utility, and IT Server rooms secured.

• Being aware of any potential chemicals or flammables on site.

• Constant awareness of children or teenagers playing with lighters or matches.

• Reporting any arson threats or attempted arson by disturbed, disgruntled, or vengeance-seeking patrons to the police.

• Vigilance by staff to enforce “No smoking” by patrons (cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and vape pens).

For professional advice on this issue, I consulted my colleague, Robert May, JD, PI. Bob is not only an attorney, a risk manager, and a private investigator, but he recently retired after a long career as a Fire Chief in northern California. (He had also served as a Fire Chief at two southern California agencies.)

He teaches fire leadership and emergency operations management for various fire administrations in the state of California. He is the CEO of Mainstream Unlimited, a firm that specializes in risk management consulting, onsite training, webinars, and site security assessments. He can be reached at www.MainstreamUnlimited.com

Here are Chief May’s thoughts on keeping libraries safe from fires:

“Libraries can pose a challenge when it comes to fire and life safety. The buildings are potentially high-occupancy facilities with hidden dangers. Employees and visitor safety are critical. Beside the life safety exposures, the building can house irreplaceable books, priceless valuables, and historical artifacts. It’s not uncommon when a library is involved in a fire for the damage to be significant. These buildings pose a high risk to the entity who owns and operates the building, which could be a city or county, a landlord, or a property manager. It’s important that all libraries be outfitted to prevent or reduce damage and allow the safe evacuation of employees and patrons.”

“The first step is to determine the high-risk areas of the building. This would include areas where:

• Exhibits featuring highly combustible materials like paper, wood, or
  textiles.

• Exhibits featuring preserved specimens housed in alcohol or other flammable liquids.

• Tightly-packed rooms with exhibits or bookshelves.

• Rooms housing materials easily damaged by smoke, soot, or water.

An important factor in preventing a fire loss is through the maintenance of a good fire prevention program. The fire protection program and accompanying policies need to be in writing and updated periodically.

Management and staff responsibilities need to be defined, and fire prevention procedures need to be established. This program must be based on a high standard of janitorial services, housekeeping, orderliness, maintenance of equipment, and continuous staff training and awareness in both recognizing and eliminating fire hazards (ignition and fuel sources).

To help in the reduction of these exposures a fire protection plan is needed. A fire protection plan should have these goals in mind:

• Preserve documents, data, artifacts, exhibits, and equipment.

• Reduce smoke and soot contamination.

• Reduce water damage caused by onsite protection or fire hoses.

• A safety plan for evacuation of staff and visitors.

“More important than the preservation of the archive and library and its collections is, of course, the safeguarding the lives of its staff and patrons. Life safety must always come first. Library management must ensure that employees know what to do in the event of a fire.”

• Make sure they know what the building fire alarm sounds like (bells, horns, chimes, speakers with recorded instructions). Fire drills should be conducted at least twice a year.

• Ensure employees can hear the alarm. Extend alarms out to locations where the alarm cannot be heard and make provisions in the interim to alert employees in those areas.

• Ensure all employees know their primary and secondary exit routes. Every archive and library should have an evacuation plan and provide it to all employees. Walk through exit routes to make sure they are clear and available for use. Conditions may change daily due to construction, renovations, repairs, etc.

• Egress paths are not obstructed by storage, etc.

• Exit doors are accessible, unlocked, and not blocked from the other side.

• Exit signs are operating and visible.

• Emergency lights are functional and adequate to illuminate the exit paths in case of a power failure.

• Staff knows where the meeting point is outside the building so they can be accounted for.

• Give an introduction to fire prevention to all new employees.

Chief May concludes by saying, “No library institution is immune from fire. Library leaders need to ensure they develop plans for dealing with the fire threat. If they do not do it, it places the building and its occupants, visitors, and collections at risk.”

Your best ally in the process of keeping your library safe is your local Fire Department. Call the Fire Chief and/or the Fire Marshal to set up a meeting and ask for a full inspection of your building. Follow the recommendations – equipment, policies, training, drills – of your fire professionals.

Kinda, Sorta Patron Behavior Problems
Two "Ask Dr. Steve" questions and my (hopefully enlightened) responses.
Dr. Steve Albrecht

In my webinar and coaching work for Library 2.0 (www.Library20.com), I have an open invitation to the 60,000+ members (free to join, so that means you need to sign up too, right after reading this) to send me their questions about library life, patron behavior issues, and leadership, management, and supervisory stuff. Two recent queries point to what could be defined as the “Gray Areas” of patron behavior. The two examples to follow aren’t disruptive, scary, or dangerous, but they are issues.

Some library folk might read these two examples and decide, “If those were happening in my library, we would address it.” Others mights say, “Eh, we got bigger fish to fry” and not discuss it with either patron.

I always use the measure of “business impact,” as in, “Does this issue impact the business of running a safe, secure, peaceful, and accessible library? If not, move on. If so, do something (which can be small and useful instead of large and disruptive).”

As you review the two scenarios, ask yourself: “Would we address this in my library? And if so, how would we address this in my library?” There are plenty of ways to do things; here were my two approaches:

Ask Dr. Steve: “Patron with Potential Communicable Disease?”

Dear Dr. Steve - We have a patron who comes in with what appears to be some type of insect infestation, perhaps lice. He scratches constantly when he is here. Some staff think he may also have scabies, which is contagious but not easily spread. We’re not medical doctors, but we know what we see and it’s concerning. We ask parents who bring in their kids who have head lice to please take them home and treat it before they return. We have a specific policy about hygiene, body odors, and offensive smells, but this seems to go beyond this. Signed, Concerned Librarian

Dr. Steve: Dear Concerned - This is a challenging concern that needs an accurate, legal response, empathy toward the person, and an assessment as to the impact on staff and patrons in the library. We’re in different territory beyond just hygiene and body odor. If there is a legitimate concern about communicable diseases and biohazards, you need to enforce your Code of Conduct or written policy, carefully and with tact. It can help to get advice from your library’s legal authority (City Attorney, County Counsel, Board Attorney). The best person to speak with the patron is usually a supervisor with good communication skills and empathy, but who is also assertive about the issue.

Sample Patron Conversation: "I know this is probably embarrassing to you, but we have some concerns that you may have a possible skin disease. Our policy is to ask people who have a medical condition that could spread to others to leave and get treatment before they return. We are not singling you out or targeting you, and I realize this is an uncomfortable personal issue. But we have to enforce our policy just like we would if someone came in with Covid, the flu, or a bloody, open wound. I have a list of nearby health clinics where you can get treatment. You're welcome to come back after you're cleared by them."

Ask Dr. Steve: “Is the Patron Praying, Meditating, or Sleeping?”

Dear Dr. Steve - Our Code of Conduct prohibits patrons from sleeping in the library. Our staff is quite lenient on this issue and they usually just “verbally nudge people awake” and remind them about the rule. There are some patrons who come here just to sleep and when staff wakes them up from an obvious deep sleep they say, “I wasn’t sleeping! I was praying or meditating and you disrupted me!”

This seems like a highly prepared answer, of course, and it kind of catches staff off guard, like it really was their fault for disrupting this patron’s worship or mediation. What should we do? Signed, Puzzled Librarian

Dr. Steve Albrecht: Dear Puzzled - This does sound like an answer that patrons who have been told repeatedly not to sleep have carefully crafted to shift the focus from their behavior on to the staff who is “harassing” them. In my world, this is known as an “excuse,” not a valid reason, and as such, we should treat it like any other excuse by not arguing back and forth as to who was doing what, but by “putting a fence around the excuse,” and moving on to the solutions.

Here are the steps, using my ARC tool:

Acknowledge what they just said, without having to agree or disagree that was what they were doing: “Oh, okay. I thought you were sleeping. I can see how that might be confusing for both of us.”

Reaffirm/Remind them of the no-sleeping policy, even if you have told them many times before: “I think we might have already talked about this, and if so, I just wanted to tell you again, you cannot sleep in the library.”

Commit/Conclude: “I know you want to follow the library rules, right? So you can use and enjoy the library without being asked to leave, right? Can I get your promise to follow that guideline for me, so you can stay? Thanks.”

When we deal with people all day - and since we can’t pick and choose our customers, we get who walks through the door. Their behaviors range from zero impact to a significant impact. Not everything needs to be addressed and not everything is a crisis. We can overreact to things just as easily as under-react.

It helps to remind ourselves of what psychologist Abraham Maslow said way back in 1966: “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

Not surprisingly, this is my next webinar topic. (Gray Areas, not hammers and nails.) I’ll be doing my usual Thursday webinar for Library 2.0 on September 18 at 2:00 pm EST. Sign up today for your free membership and you’ll get all the details when L20 founder, CEO, and AI for Libraries guru Steve Hargadon posts the webinar details.

Make Yourself a Multi-Lingual Librarian
Better Patron Communications, Fewer Misunderstandings
Dr. Steve Albrecht

Here’s a fun exercise, one that will help you connect to a wider variety of your patrons:

Step 1 - Create a list of the Top Three most common languages spoken in and around your library, by the patrons you serve. (Just one language is too easy; four is too hard.)

Step 2 - Do your usual “skilled library professional research” and develop a list of the most common phrases in those languages. Memorize them and have them at the ready (or on a cheat sheet) when you encounter patrons who speak those languages besides English.

Thanks to a total of six years of classes through high school, college, and graduate school, I speak Spanish fluently. (Living most of my life in San Diego helped me practice every day.) In terms of skill level from best to needs-improvement, for me it’s reading, speaking, writing, and hearing it. That last issue is my biggest challenge, since native speakers talk quickly, especially when they hear me speak Spanish and think I understand them fully. I have to say, “Por favor, mas despacio,” more times than I’d like.

Thanks to being an Albrecht (a name in Germany as common as Smith is here), I can speak enough German to get by there. It came in plenty handy on our river cruise through Holland, Germany, France, and Switzerland a few years back. “Entschuldigen, wo sind die Brezeln?” or “Excuse me, where are the pretzels?”

With my mother’s side being from Finland, I can say, “Good day,” “How is it going?,” and “What’s happening?” plus a few dozen swear words. Finnish, to quote a part of a line from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s office rant scene with John Slattery in “Charlie Wilson’s War,” is not that handy here in Missouri.

My dad speaks German, Spanish, Japanese (including being able to write a few dozen kanji symbols), and even a little Mandarin Chinese. He’s a good enough speaker/listener to travel to those countries regularly and stay comfortably hoteled, fed, and explained to, by native speakers.

Many years ago, I had a challenging coaching session with an employee from Thailand who was in jeopardy of being fired, due to his conflict with another employee. I memorized how to say, “How are you? My name is Steve” in Thai. (Phonetically, it’s “Sa-Wat-Dee-Khrap, Pom-Chue-Steve.”) When he heard me, he smiled, bowed, and thanked me for my effort to connect with him in his language, however briefly. We worked it out, he kept his job, and I picked up a few new phrases from him as well.

The old adage that people from other countries actually like it when you try to speak a few phrases of their language is universally true. It just helps to demonstrate your respect for their heritage, it can lower the emotional temperature in a potentially conflicted situation, and it shows you care enough to have done the research and memorized the words.

The most common languages spoken in many US neighborhoods are Spanish, Chinese, German, Arabic, Hindi, Tagalog, and French. Of course, where you are geographically is the biggest indicator. Some of these languages are quite challenging, so start memorizing these phrases in the three languages you pick:

• Hello/Goodbye
• How is your day going?
• I’m learning this language.
• How can I help you?
• Can you teach me some common phrases?
• How do I say, “Please speak slowly?”
• Thanks/Thank you/You’re welcome.

Our connection with people is built on mutual communication that is respectful and that shows listening skills on both sides. A little patience, a little practice, and a little courage to try what you are learning can really set the most positive tone with the patrons you serve.

Hyvää lomaa! (Happy holidays in Finnish.)

An Audio Review of The Safe Library
Here's a quick podcast-style summary of my book, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure
Dr. Steve Albrecht

One of the coolest parts about my longtime association with Steve Hargadon, the founder and CEO of Library 2.0, is his vast knowledge of all things AI. Steve H is a pioneer in this area, as it relates to libraries and librarians. This means I can benefit from his expertise without having to be as smart as he is on AI uses, pitfalls, and advantages. As such, one of the many gifts he has given me is this audio file, which is a 15-minute review of my book, The Safe Library (Rowman, 2023). Done in a podcast style, this work of genius (the audio, not my book, unless you ask my mom) features a man and a woman discussing my book, as if we were listening in at a coffee shop.

To say I was stunned at how natural and non-AI this sounded when I first heard it, is my Understatement of the Year. It sounds like two people talking, not two robots. Please take a moment to give it a listen. If you’re as pleased as I was with what is said, you can order the book here.

LISTEN

The Dangers of the Library “Eye-Pad”
Using devices with patrons means a little less humanity.
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

There are two reasons I follow Gerry Sandusky and his newsletter’s advice about presentation skills for trainers, how to better communicate with audiences, and how to grow as a professional speaker. 1) - He says smart and useful things, in ways that I can put to use immediately. 2) He is the voice of the Baltimore Ravens football team, who play, along with my beloved Orioles in baseball, in the city of my birth. (Both teams thrill me and break my heart, often on the same day, as when they are playing in September.) Item 2 is glorious and Item 1 is an added bonus.

A recent newsletter caught my attention, from his July 28, 2025 edition called “Want to Improve Your Communications? Stop Thinking of Your I-Pad as Your Eye-Pad.”

As Gerry puts it:

“The real path to standing out and making one-of-a-kind interactions that build business loyalty is getting your eyes off the iPad and putting them back on people.

Here’s one of the great tells that you are putting more attention on your iPad (or any other form of technology) than on people: your voice falls flat and monotone. You sound a little disconnected and your salutations lack sincerity. There’s nothing that rings quite as false as an insincere salutation.

People feel that. They may not verbalize it or consciously think about it, but they feel it. They feel more welcome in one place than another. They feel more seen in one place than another. They feel more connected in one place than another.

And people return over and over to the businesses that make them feel welcome, seen, and connected.”

Gerry isn’t saying to ditch every piece of technology we have and use in the library; he’s just saying make more of an effort to connect to our patrons (and our co-workers) instead of using the devices as a buffer. Careful eye contact matters; it means, “I see you as a person and I’m not using this device to avoid talking with you.”

His point about the changes in our tone is insightful; we can sound a bit robotic when we are caught up in what is on the screens of our phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. And as your resident library safety and security guy, I like to remind all employees to keep their heads on a swivel as they enter and leave the facility each day. That means no headphones or earbuds, and eyes up and seeing who is nearby as you walk.

In the library environment, we should never trade the convenience of technology if it sacrifices great customer service.

You can find Gerry Sandusky’s newsletter collection - “The Influential Leader” - at https://www.sanduskygroup.com/about

Helping Library Employees Get More Comfortable With EAP Services
Employee Assistance Programs can have a stigma surrounding them.
By Dr. Steve Albrecht

More than a bit of my library-related Human Resources (HR) coaching and consulting work has involved employees who have personal and professional stressors, caused by both home and workplace issues. As such, I have made many referrals to the library’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider. In nearly every instance, I have found them to be an empathic, professional, and a valuable, confidential liaison/resource to the employee.

If you already have an EAP provider on retainer, either as part of your employee benefits plan or in connection with being part of a city or county library system, you probably know the services they provide and the subjects they can address to help an employee who is struggling, hurting, anxious, sad, depressed, angry, or feeling helpless and hopeless:

• Financial problems.
• Marital or relationship problems.
• PTSD help for past traumas.
• Grief counseling from a death or loss.
• Blended families, step-parenting and/or step-children.
• Serious medical issues.
• Parents or grandparents facing end-of-life changes.
• Depression or mental health concerns.
• Addiction problems, using help from EAP providers known Substance Abuse Professionals (SAPs).
• Anger management.
• Suicidal thoughts.
• Pet loss.
• Personal stressors.
• Work stressors.

This is a short list, and most EAP providers have access to other clinical resources not listed here, if the scope of the employee’s issues are beyond their specific expertise.

I often get this question from library directors, managers, and supervisors (not so much from HR professionals, who know the answer): “Can you make an employee go to EAP? After all, it’s for their own good. Why can’t we mandate that they go?”

This question confuses the differences between a Fitness for Duty (FFD) evaluation and an EAP referral. We can order an employee to cooperate with a FFD, since it often has to do with our concerns about his or her mental state (danger to self or others, erratic self-harm behaviors, delusional beliefs).

A Fitness for Duty evaluation is often a complex intervention, involving a series of interviews with the employee, cognitive or personality testing, and a final report that advises the organization if the employee can and/or should return to work, and what, if any job-related accommodations need to be made to help the employee work effectively going forward. A FFD is most often conducted by a psychiatrist, who is a medical doctor, as opposed to a psychologist or a licensed clinical therapist, who is better suited for cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma work, or similar counseling support.

Some employees may be troubled, that is, something is bothering them, which effects their work. Some employees may be troubling, that is, they are bothering people, which makes other employees concerned for them in the best cases, or afraid of them, in the worst cases. If the employe is both troubling and troubling, the FFD is the best tool.

In contrast, an EAP referral is often simply a gentle, supportive reminder by the library employee’s director, manager, supervisor, or from HR, that we have an EAP provider, that it is confidential, no report is created, and they don’t need to tell us, or get our permission to use the services.

Speaking of reports, what type of documentation does HR need to do to demonstrate due diligence when out comes to making an EAP referral on behalf of an employee? I think the answer is a notation, saying that you discussed the presence of your EAP provider with the employee. Since we won’t know (and aren’t supposed to ever know) if the employee decided to book an appointment with EAP, the best we can do is to notate that we at least gave the employee the information so that he or she can decide to go. (Many EAPs offer in-person sessions, Zoom-based sessions, or even referrals to specific support groups.)

Helping all library employees thrive at work means we must continue to publicize both the existence of EAP services and the confidential nature of its use. It’s not unusual for some employees to have no knowledge that EAP even exists, even if they have worked at the library for many years.

More likely, they don’t think the program is free (it is, usually for three to five sessions); available to all employees at every level (and to their spouses, partners, or children); and confidential (no specific notice of its use by an employee or any report about that employee is ever generated back to HR).

Every library district or system needs to make the existence of its EAP services something every employee can see, using email or staff meeting reminders; Intranet postings; break room posters; and during coaching meetings with employees who are letting their work affect their home lives and their home lives affect their work.

Once we open the facility doors each morning and invite them inside, we have a duty of care for our patrons in our library. We have the same duty of care for the well-being of our employees, which is why EAP services exist. If you have ever went to an EAP therapist or counselor, and it was useful, have the courage to confide in a struggling co-worker about its value for you, to encourage them to seek it out as well.

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)