“Patron Harassment Scenarios: What to Do as a Staffer and a Leader”
Part of the Library 2.0 Series with Dr. Steve Albrecht
OVERVIEW:
Just because something is illegal and has been for a long time (1964, to be exact), doesn’t mean it has stopped happening. The passage of the Civil Rights Act started the necessary discussions and prevention processes to address sexual and racial harassment in many facets of our personal and professional lives, including the workplace.
And yet, despite sexual and racial harassment being a well-defined issue — with policies; notification choices; investigation steps; support for targets; and consequences for perpetrators — it exists as a shadow issue in many agencies, including libraries. Where many organizations have to deal with harassers who are other co-workers, in the library environment, it’s most likely to come from patrons, vendors, visitors, and even the possibility of elected or appointed officials.
Dr. Steve Albrecht has heard about this concern so often from his library training clients that he devoted a chapter from his forthcoming book, The Safe Library, to the problem. Library leaders, managers, and supervisors need to know what is happening if it affects the safety and peace of mind of their employees. They can’t fix what they don’t know about. Library employees need to have the courage to talk about these issues with each other, report them to management, and expect a resolution that creates a harassment-free workplace.
To prevent it, we need to discuss its many forms and empower harassment targets (Steve does not like the term “victims”) to protect and defend themselves, using all legal, ethical, and creative means.
This is a 60-minute training webinar presented by Library 2.0 and hosted by ALA author and library service, safety, and security expert, Dr. Steve Albrecht. This overview session is another in our “Essential Library Leadership Series,” for all library leaders. A handout copy of the presentation slides will be available to all who participate.
LEARNING AGENDA:
- Review common (and uncommon) library employee-patron harassment scenarios.
- How common is “quid pro quo” sexual harassment? And what can be done if the QPQ perpetrator is a prominent community member?
- Discuss the stakeholders’ role for “multiple channels of reporting” to work effectively.
- Review a typical complex harassment investigation done by an HR professional, a lawyer, or a private investigator.
- Review the harassment prevention tip sheet from Pen.org.
- Review setting library use (or no-use) boundaries for patrons who are repeat offenders.
- Discuss what language must be in a library’s Harassment Prevention Policy.
DATE: Thursday, October 6, 2022, at 2:00 pm US – Eastern Time
COST:
- $99/person – includes any-time access to the recording and the presentation slides and receiving a participation certificate. To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email [email protected].
- FREE for those on individual or group all-access passes (see below).
TO REGISTER:
Click above to pay. You can pay by credit card, and will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and then your permanent access to the webinar recording. If you have any trouble registering for a webinar, if you need to be invoiced or pay by check, or if you have any questions, please email [email protected]. NOTE: please check your spam folder if you don’t receive your confirmation email right away.
SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email [email protected] to arrange):
- Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $75 each for 3+ registrations, $65 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
- The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $299.
- Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $499 (hosted either at Library 2.0 or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
ALL-ACCESS PASSES:
- All-access annual passes include unlimited access to the recordings of all of Dr. Albrecht’s previous Library 2.0 webinars, plus live and recorded access to his new webinars for one year. These are hosted either at Library 2.0 or Niche Academy (if preferred).
- For a $499 individual all-access annual pass to all of Dr. Albrecht’s live webinars and recordings for one year, please click here.
- Inquiries for all-access organizational contracts should be directed to [email protected].
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Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, security, and supervision. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons. In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. He is currently writing the sequel, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, for Rowman & Littlefield.
Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment.
He has written 24 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives with six dogs, two cats, and three chickens. (Not all in the same room, of course.)