Service, Safety, and Security

Service, Safety, and Security:
Important Lessons for the Current State of the Library
Part of the Library 2.0 Service, Safety, and Security Series with Dr. Steve Albrecht

OVERVIEW: 

After 25 years in the library security, training, and consulting business, Steve Albrecht has strong feelings about what he has seen and what still needs to be done to create (or re-create) the libraries that patrons want to visit, and that the employees want to work at. It all comes down to how we address these three concerns:

Service issues: Disrespectful, entitled, and hypersensitive patrons can be hard to serve, since they are distracted by their own sense of importance, which leads to problems listening and responding to staff requests. Students and parents who are rude to staff just trying to do their jobs; patrons with significant mental health issues; and patrons who continually violate library noise rules, Internet usage rules, and trespass, even after being banned.

Safety issues: Old library buildings, often in major disrepair, that make both employees and patrons uncomfortable. Threats of crime and violence spilling over from the streets to the library. No money for security upgrades or installations, until after there is an incident. Elderly patrons, daily or frequent users, and parents with their kids, who don’t feel their local library is safe anymore. Staff safety concerns lead to morale, burnout, and retention problems, leading to staff leaving and the remaining employees having to work short-staffed. Neighborhoods where staff coming and going to work is uncomfortable. A perceived lack of support from Library Boards and city/county leaders or elected officials, who don’t think about the library until there is a major problem.

Security issues: Fear of or a lack of confidence in the police, leading staff to hesitate to call 9-1-1, even when it’s the absolute right thing to do. Continuing conflicts with book banners, content protesters, and people who want to distrust library programs they disagree with. On-going and seemingly unsolvable issue with disruptive homeless people, who don’t care about the library or its rules (when compared to cooperative, compliant homeless patrons, who do want to be there and don’t want to be asked to leave).

LEARNING AGENDA: 

• How can we hire, train, and retain the best-service oriented employees.
• How the lack of civility in our current culture contributes to patron confrontations in the library. What to do about chronic rule-breakers and Code of Conduct violators.
• What Steve Albrecht learned from being interviewed in the July 7, 2025 Free Press piece, “The Death of the Public Library.”
• How to use our websites and social media channels to both publicize and really emphasize the safety of our libraries.
• How to work as library leaders and staff, to get back to the universal goal of a safe, secure, peaceful, accessible library, with staff who feel trained, empowered, confident, supported, and willing to serve all who want to use the facility the right way.

DATE: Thursday, August 21, 2025, 2:00 - 3:00 pm US - Eastern Time