Making Public Libraries Safe Places for All

DE BRAUWERE, Jana (2019) Making Public Libraries Safe Places for All. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2019 - Athens, Greece - Libraries: dialogue for change in Session 113c - IFLA Poster Session.

Bookmark or cite this item: https://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2799
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Language: English (Original)
Available under licence Creative Commons Attribution.

Abstract

Making Public Libraries Safe Places for All

Urbanization, homelessness and opioid crisis in larger cities in United States are challenges that directly impact libraries and how they provide services. San Francisco Public Library located in one of the celebrated cities in United States finds itself amid a widespread opioid crisis. It is now more important than ever to keep the library doors open to all citizens and provide services that match the community needs. The libraries are only relevant if the community finds value in them and can use the many services they provide. San Francisco Public Library has experienced increased number of attacks on library staff. This poster will cover best practices established by the organization to maintain the status of a premier urban library, the specific knowledge and skills that are required of library staff to provide services on continuous basis. Jana De Brauwere, the Chair of the Committee, will share several key documents and procedures developed as a direct response to security issues the library staff has identified over a period of several years and will describe the journey the library took to change the organizational culture and how it reframed the way we serve public as well as our library employees. The Security and Communications Committee is a group of individuals from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds and representing various classifications in the organization: librarians, library managers, library technicians, Library Security, HR employees and Union representatives and many more. A few examples of what we achieved: 1. Revision of the Patron Code of Conduct 2. Establishment of Security and Communications Task Force 3. Cooperation with San Francisco Police Department 4. Hiring of a Security Unit Manager (full time position) 5. Development of Annotated Patron Code of Conduct 6. Revision of Suspension and Appeal form and Suspension Checklist 7. Implementation of Narcan Policy 8. Development of Level 1 Incident protocol and checklist for supervisors 9. Creation of Incident Report Writing Guidelines 10. Development of Incident Report Writing training

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