This is another place where policy can be a huge asset. It takes the guesswork out of your expectations for your staff both on the supervisory front and on the patron side. If everyone is working off of the same policy, they are working off of the same set of expectations which means consistency that engenders trust throughout your staff and community. This has the added bonus of staff being able to help and support each other more easily because they are all working off the same guidelines. Remember when I mentioned having a copy of your policy binder at every service point and a digital copy accessible to all staff? Having a copy within reach takes the guesswork out of wondering if you’re doing the right thing. Staff members don’t have to speculate whether it’s OK for a patron to be doing x behavior in the library or if their response to a situation is something that’s appropriate. They can pull out the policy binder to check, or grab the binder to help guide a colleague through a tricky situation.
Staff Responsibilities
Here are some suggestions to guide your staff in a patron behavior policy. Staff can be accountable for:
- Weighing degree of disruptive conduct with onsite conditions. For example: it worth the confrontation to tell someone who is speaking loudly to quiet down when it looks like their conversation is ending anyway and the room is otherwise empty?
- Being tactful, firm, and respectful when handling disruptive behaviors
- Clearly communicate to a patron the reasons for the action they are taking when they are enforcing library policy
- Never, under any circumstances, touching a patron as part of a disciplinary action
- Whenever possible, refraining from touching a patron who may be in distress, for example: If a 911 operator asks you to move a patron or check a pulse, you have every right to say “I’m not comfortable doing that” and ask for ways to assist without making physical contact. Another example: Touching a person who may be sleeping in an attempt to wake them up. If the person is having a health emergency, touching them can make it worse. If the person isn’t in distress but is disoriented when they awake, you’re putting yourself in potential (if unintentional) harm’s way by being in such close proximity
- Explaining and distributing policy upon request or when intervening with a policy violation
- Conducting themselves that’s conducive to a welcoming atmosphere
- Filling out an incident report every time a patron’s behavior must be corrected or intervened upon (when in doubt, fill it out!)
- Seeking out supervisors and/or public safety officials (911, non-emergency police line, etc.) in any ongoing or escalating patron issues
Policy is not a performance review
While it’s important for staff expectations to be outlined in a patron behavior policy, it’s also important that the staff expectations focus on treating patrons respectfully and equitably, and what patrons can expect from staff in relation to policy enforcement. They should not go into procedures such as how to maintain the desk at a public service point or even the procedures to follow once a staff member has had a patron encounter. Keeping staff expectations for this particular policy focused on patron interactions can keep staff from feeling micromanaged or singled-out.
These patron-focused expectations also give your patrons a clear understanding of how they will reliably be treated, which can go a long way to helping a patron, who may not otherwise be comfortable in a public or government space, consider the library a place where they are welcome. Consider putting up brief, direct signs with icons explaining what’s expected of patrons in your library, particularly if the library often welcomes individuals who may encounter many different types of spaces that are rule-bound. This prevents confusion and possibly uncomfortable situations for you and other patrons if your rules differ from that of a school, group home, senior center, etc.
All people are welcome – all behaviors are not
Under no circumstances should any staff member, at any level, feel uncomfortable or unsafe in their workplace. Remember that policy is designed to keep everyone safe, but first and foremost, the safety of you and your staff should be top of mind. With staff increasingly retiring or becoming burned out and leaving the field (librarianship lost 10% of it’s workforce each year between 2020 and 2022), ensuring a safe workplace becomes even more vital to the success of your library. Part of the reason for having a strong, succinct Patron Rights & Responsibility policy is so your staff (and you) can understand and explain it to patrons when they are not following it. Your staff can feel somewhat more at ease (no situation where you have to correct behavior is every really comfortable) in knowing that they have a document they can show someone as backup proof when they say “you are violating library policy and need to stop, please.” By placing the focus on the policy and not the staff member (i.e. “I need to you to stop, please”) it directs the patron’s attention away from the staff member hopefully keeping the situation from escalating.
Even the best policies won’t stop at least some situations from escalating, but yelling, invasion of personal space or boundaries, attempts to access staff-only areas, or other inappropriate interactions are unacceptable behaviors for a library. If your staff member feels unsafe, that is not the time to give a patron their chances. If you implemented one of last week’s suggestions: “A space where everyone on library property is undisturbed, without threat of harm or the invasion of personal property or space” into your policy, that should apply to staff, too. You can also add a caveat under that particular line item (or wherever you feel it’s appropriate) that anyone exhibiting rude or inappropriate behavior including but not limited to verbal abuse, threats or displaying unwanted attention on another person will be asked to leave the library immediately. You can even add that the Director reserves the right to apply follow-up restrictions if the situation warrants it. There may be many reasons for bad behavior, but there is no excuse for tolerating it in a public space where everyone, especially those that call it their workplace should feel safe, welcome, and comfortable.
If you recall the equitable section from last week’s post, that applies here as well. If a longstanding regular who is usually very mild-mannered yells at a staff member, there may be extenuating circumstances, but in that moment, they are acting inappropriately and need to be asked to leave immediately. After the incident report is filed and the situation is discussed, you may consider those extenuating circumstances in determining if any follow-up restrictions should apply and/or if you would like to hear the patron’s side of the story, but you may choose not to. If a patron you’re unfamiliar with begins hitting your printer because it’s jammed and then yells at a staff member who comes to help fix it, same rules apply. That person may never have used the library before and only came in because their printer crashed and they were on a deadline. You can choose whether or not to invite that person back to hear that side of the story in the hopes of gaining a long-term patron that otherwise uses the library in accordance to policy every day forward. In any situation the hardline stance that you need to have is that, in that moment, that patron is violating library policy and in accordance with library policy, must leave immediately, and for the rest of the day.
Libraries aren’t just for the people; they ARE the people
By not tolerating unacceptable behavior, you are demonstrating to the patrons that follow the rules and, most importantly, your staff – who should be able to come to each shift without worrying for their safety – that you value that safety above all else. Library staff are one of the library’s most important resources; they are the ones who add value to the library: applying their professional expertise to curate collections that are meaningful to the community, using their knowledge of the community to make connections so their community can thrive, connecting with other libraries to make networks that can share resources freely (which exponentially increases the value of all of the connected libraries), creating the resources that anyone can use to improve their lives, smiling and greeting regular patrons and new users alike, and so much more. There is a human component to all libraries that are essential to their function, making them the library’s most valuable asset. Libraries cannot welcome without staff. Libraries cannot serve without staff. Staff cannot make their libraries the essential third spaces they are, if they are not treated with respectful, appropriate behavior.
This is why we write policy – not to be punitive or to tell people what they can’t do, but to allow the people who make the library a place where all community members can feel comfortable, free to express their ideas, and free to use a space that asks for nothing but basic accountability in return, to use the knowledge, skills, and abilities they bring to their jobs every day, and gives them the space to do those jobs well.
