Wednesday October 17, Lori, Bryan (and beth, for some of it) attended the free Library 2.018: Social Crisis Management online conference. Here are some notes from the sessions:

 Active Shooter, Mary Soucie, State Librarian of ND

• Covered Run, Hide, Fight and keeping phones silenced during hiding and fighting with all you have if necessary
• Responding to police
  • Initially the police will only be interested in stopping the shooter and will not stop to help those that are injured
  • Follow their directions, keep hands in air, no sudden movements, keep calm (as you can), don’t ask questions
• Make sure you have Active Shooter procedures in your library disaster plan
• Train on a regular basis with local law enforcement
• If fire alarms are activated, always listen for gunshots. If they are heard, find a place to hide or exit the building if you know it is safe
• Have a plan for frontline staff – what do you do if a shooter walks through the main doors?
• If patrons will not evacuate leave them behind. Take care of yourself.
• Have a communication plan within the building – how are you going to communicate with staff?
• When evacuating, have a predetermined gathering place, like another building nearby.
• Know the signs of potential threats – behaviors of possible active shooters
• Do a risk and safety assessment of your library and work areas.
• We may want to move the red phone at our desk so it is not visible to the entrance lobby.

Ryan Dowd (ryan@homelesslibrary.com) spoke about homelessness.  We started late so missed the title and theme, but a few points of interest stood out.  He only presented 2 main rules for making things move along better – 1. Respect common humanity, and 2. Appreciate diversity.  If you assume others have had all the same opportunities as you, you will dismiss their suffering, problems, and maybe them altogether if they don’t measure up to where you would expect them to be in life.  Don’t assume they’ve shared your path and your privileges.  Many homeless patrons will also have a hyper-sensitivity to unfairness – they have been unfairly targeted regularly and have little patience and more than a little anger about it in many cases.  Others also may have unexpected triggered reactions since trauma changes the brain.  2 types of questions from “non-homeless” patrons – 1.) will you keep me safe and take problematic behaviors seriously (legitimate) and 2.) why should I have to see this, see homeless people, see poor people, see immigrants (illegitimate).

Madelaine Ildefonso from LA public libraries focused on services available to marginalized populations in the LA area.  Focus is on families, path to citizenship, small business assistance, housing, financial coaching, know your rights.  If you can’t offer all services in your library it’s okay – something is better than nothing.  Build programs that focus on peoples’ assets (like entrepreneurship) rather than on their deficits (like language barriers) and they’ll be more likely to attend.  Sometimes people are afraid to attend deficit-centered events – afraid of being labelled as needing mental help, housing, or language assistance.  Some people have been afraid of attending “Know your rights” meetings for fear they will be highlighted as undocumented.  Offer these kinds of sessions privately.  Don’t offer advice – refer them to experts and try to bring experts and services to the library.

Alix Midgely of the Denver Public Library spoke on providing support to people facing adverse challenges. Hired as a social worker by the library (awesome) – they also have peer navigators who are people who have lived the situation of the patrons experiencing crisis – whether that’s being homeless, facing addiction, overcoming poverty, etc.  Must have an understanding that any or all of those you serve have had different circumstances and may have individual trauma and triggers that result from that trauma.  Focus on people’s strengths, avoid words that label and individual – person battling addiction rather than an addict.  Don’t label people as their adverse circumstance.  People experiencing homelessness, not “The Homeless.”  Eliminate barriers, be inclusive, collaborate with community services – wondering if we could have CAPS and HSRC do walk-in/drop-in hours in the library?  I know this has been mentioned before in reference to CAPS but not sure it’s going forward? Evenings would be FABULOUS.

Julie Ann Winkelstein, School of Info Science, U of TN,  spoke about her course for library staff on homelessness and poverty in the library.  She used the phrase cultural humility which I’m not sure yet that I understand but it seems to be about focusing on the cultural identity and preferences of the other person in your conversations and interactions.  Libraries are operating from a place of power (comparatively) to the marginalized populations they serve – they can help make change.  Things contributing to marginalization can include housing, health, age, disability, gender, sexual preference, race, family status, and etc. plus any number of combinations of the above. Some people will deny their situations for fear of the stigma of being labelled “addict” or “homeless” or “illiterate” and etc.

Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Executive Director at the Mid-Hudson Library System in New York, spoke on sustainability of library services in light of the environmental degradation and uncertain safety and financial situations it will cause.  She sees the need to express our libraries as Vital Visible and Viable.  Not everyone will be impacted equally by coming environmental crises (or any crises) and the poor will almost always be impacted more profoundly.  We need to build on the uniqueness of the library and why we do what we do – we need to be able to define those things.  We must focus locally as many of the problems that we’re facing are far too large to focus on nationally or globally.  We have the best potential for local impact if we can be Environmentally Sound, Economical Sustainable and Socially Responsible.  Check out reports from the ALA on Sustainable Libraries.  I like the idea of involvement in local repair fairs, farms and food shares, seed libraries, etc.