About the Book
This practical guide, written from different perspectives and applying to all library types, explains how to create healthy library workplaces.
While library work is often imbued with a strong sense of purpose and mission, it's still work-messy, rewarding, complicated. This book explores the five factors that influence both workplace engagement and job satisfaction for library workers:
· culture and work environment
· leadership
· workload
· recognition
· meaning
Learn how to critically examine these five factors and understand meaningful ways to positively implement them. The expert contributors to this volume represent many types of libraries and points of view, including BIPOC writers and those from other marginalized groups as well as librarians from small and large libraries, rural and urban libraries, and academic, public, and school libraries. This book is written for everyone in a library-leaders, librarians, and other staff can all contribute to making their library a better workplace. Readers will appreciate the hands-on guidance for improving not only the organizational functioning of the library, but the human functioning as well.
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Culture and Work Environment
1. Identifying and Addressing Toxic Workplaces in Libraries, Erin DeWitt-Miller (ITHAKA, USA) and Laurel Sammonds Crawford (EBSCO, USA)
2. Just Listen: Using Listening Tours to Improve Workplace Culture, Emily Mross (Pennsylvania State University, USA) and Carmen Cole (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
3. Reinventing Workplace Culture in a Changing Digital Academic Library Environment, Jamie Diermier (National University, USA), Tammy Ivins (National University, USA), Stephanie Johnson (National University, USA), and Laura Thompson (National University, USA)
4. Patron-Perpetrated Sexual Harassment: Is There an End? Olivia Radbill (South Pasadena Library, USA)
5. Answering the Identity Questions: The Struggles of Library Workers to Be Themselves at Work, Darin Freeburg (University of South Carolina, USA)
6. Creating an Inclusive Work Environment for Ethnically and Culturally Diverse Staff in Your Library, Jameka Lewis (University of Denver, USA)
7. From Hire to Welcome: A Comprehensive Approach to Inclusive Onboarding, Tarida Anantachai (North Carolina State University, USA), Robin Davis (North Carolina State University, USA), Adebola Fabiku (North Carolina State University, USA), and Nellie Maurer (North Carolina State University, USA)
8. Seeking Affinity: Fostering Spaces for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Peers in Libraries, Jeanie Pai (New York Public Library, USA) and Miriam Tuliao (Penguin Random House, USA)
Part 2: Leadership
9. The Reflexive Library Leader, Julia Davis (Smith, Hulsey, and Busey, USA)
10. A Foundation Built on Trust: Psychological Safety in Library Supervisor-Employee Relationships, Laura Thompson (National University, USA), Tammy Ivins (National University, USA), Jamie Diermier (National University, USA), and Stephanie Johnson (National University, USA)
11. Deep Listening: A Key to Unlocking Leadership Responsiveness and Fostering a Healthy Workplace, Jennifer McKinnell (McMaster University, Canada)
12. Healing with Trauma-Informed Leadership, Lauren Slingluff (University of New Haven, USA)
13. How Academic Library Leaders Can Positively Influence Librarian Retention, Amy F. Fyn (Eastern Michigan University, USA) and Amanda Foster Kaufman (Wake Forest University, USA)
Part 3: Workload and Work Expectations
14. Slow Librarianship and Slow Productivity: Complementary Approaches to Sustainable Work, Julie Tedjeske Crane (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
15. Job Control and Librarian Engagement: Considerations of Workplace Agency for Crafting Meaningful Work Experiences, Matthew Weirick Johnson (University of South Florida, USA)
16. Crafting Professional Standards: Navigating Ambiguity in Library Environments, LaCharmine Jefferson (Wayne State University, USA) and Katie Perry (California State University, USA)
17. A Collaborative and Equitable Approach to Managing Your Team's Workload, Ashley Riordan (The Claremont Colleges, USA), Elizabeth Galoozis (University of California – Irvine, USA), and Kendra Macomber (Colorado State University, USA)
18. Support in All the Right Places: An Empathic Approach to Tenure, Katherine Hanz (McGill University, Canada) and Sandy Hervieux (McGill University, Canada)
19. Incorporating Neurodivergent Workplace Adjustments to Reduce Burnout in the Library Setting: Disrupting the American Obsession with Work, Maggie Albro (University of Tennessee, USA) and Niki Cobb (University of Tennessee, USA)
Part 4: Recognition
20. Eye on the Prize: Leveraging the Power of Recognition to Create a More Successful and Fulfilling Workplace, Megan Gilpin (Pennsylvania State University – University Park, USA)
21. Leading From Where You Are: Taking Ownership in Improving Departmental Culture,
Cara M. Calabrese (Miami University, USA) and Masha L. Stepanova (Ohio State University, USA)
Part 5: Meaning
22. Beyond “Follow Your Passion”: Cultivating Meaning and Purpose in Library Work, Julie Tedjeske Crane (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
23. Feeling Imposter Syndrome and Burnout? Time to Burn It Down and Get Back to Basics, Jordan Ruud (University of Arkansas, USA) and Jason D. Phillips (University of Central Florida, USA)
Index
About the Author :
Jason Martin is the Dean of the Evans Library at Florida Institute of Technology, USA.
Review :
With fresh perspectives, rigorously researched insights and blending examples from both academic and public libraries, this book explores the challenges and opportunities facing libraries today. Whether confronting toxic work environments, workplace safety, stress and burnout, or striving to build a more equitable and energized team, the authors present a dynamic framework for creating supportive, inclusive, and resilient library cultures. Each chapter is thoroughly researched and annotated, providing a wealth of resources to explore further and strengthen understanding. This book bridges the gap between theory and practice, focusing on five factors to help build a healthier, engaging and more fulfilling library workplace wanted by all.
This collection provides practical and compelling examples to help make your library a healthy workplace. Straightforward and diverse, Martin's work is a welcome addition to the growing literature on a topic that organizations must address to be successful and keep their employees engaged.
Editor Jason Martin, well-known to library workplace researchers, offers what is sure to become a core resource in this impressive book. The practical, solution-oriented focus of this collection means that readers will gain useful ideas and solutions for the issues they are dealing with, and since the authors come from many different library types, those solutions are applicable to a wide range of readers: leaders, librarians, and library staff alike. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in a reset of their relationship to their work in libraries, and to libraries themselves.
This unique and timely work offers insights, learnings, and practical guidance for librarians, managers, and leaders. If you want to lead effectively and be an example for our profession, I highly recommend this work to leaders at all stages of their development!
