Online Library Safety Summit

Ensuring equitable and just service in an unprecedented environment of security threats has become one of the greatest challenges library leaders have faced. Join us this fall to learn some of the ways public and academic library leaders can help make libraries safer for staff and patrons while protecting their privacy and maintaining open, accessible, and welcoming spaces. This 4-hour course is an online version of our April 2023 in-person Safety Summit and will include participants' highest rated sessions.

See what one of attendees of our in-person Safety Summit said:

"The LJ Safety Summit was one of the best professional development experiences in recent memory. The presentations and discussions were robust, timely and practical. I was energized and am excited to bring so many great ideas back to my Library system." Bridget Quinn, President and CEO, Hartford Public Library

COURSE PROGRAM

Session 1 | 12:00-12:55 pm ET

Safer Libraries for Staff and Patrons: Library Leadership Through a Trauma Informed Lens

A panel of library leaders, moderated and facilitated by an expert in trauma-informed library practices, will discuss trauma-informed leadership techniques with the goal of helping both staff and patrons feel safe in the library. The panel will focus on practical, actionable ideas. Facilitated discussion following the panel will aim to give library leaders concrete next steps to lead in a trauma-informed manner.

Session 2 | 12:55-1:50 pm ET

Security Staffing Models: Police, Social Work, and Everything in Between

This panel will highlight different perspectives on security staffing, discussing the pros and cons of a range of models and their outcomes. We will also discuss how and why different security staffing decisions are made. Facilitated discussion after the panel will examine how staff can make security decisions based on their own needs.

Session 3 | 2:00-2:55 pm ET

Debriefing After a Traumatic Event: Policies and Procedures

A panel of library administrators will discuss how they communicate with staff during and after a security incident. This conversation will focus not only on best practices but on communication procedures codified in library policy, and how these communication policies help protect staff. Facilitated discussion after the panel will allow the audience to brainstorm policies and procedures for their own libraries.

Session 4 | 3:00-3:55 pm ET

Engaging with Tweens and Teens in Crisis (and Afterward)

A panel of experts on working with young adults outside the library profession will share insight from their own fields on how to manage and de-escalate situations involving tweens and teens in crisis. The panel will be moderated by a librarian and facilitated discussion after the panel will focus on how these insights from other fields can be put into practice in a library environment.