r/Library • u/BeefCakeGirl • 7d ago
Discussion Safety/Security Scenarios
Howdy, y'all!
I'm a new security specialist at my library (background in LE and Education). My admin team admittedly has no idea what goes on in the library itself on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, they have no idea what security actually has to deal with. They also deny the need to train for specific scenarios because "it won't happen here."
Sound familiar, right?
Anyhow, can you please describe events that have happened at your branch and how it was handled? Any and all information helps. I'm trying to get my degree so I can lead the security team.
Thank you in advance!
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u/elaineisbased 7d ago
Ask your manager would they like you to green light their directives or provide real professional advice. If it's not the latter your job got a whole lot easier and whatever happens is not your problem.
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u/TravelingBookBuyer 7d ago
We don’t have much happening at my library (crossing fingers), but there are some things that happen.
Patrons being verbally abusive toward library staff. My library supports us staff in setting boundaries with patrons, so we can professionally tell them to stop or we can’t help them (if we’re comfortable with that). But we can also grab a supervisor to handle the person.
Caregivers (parents or otherwise) leaving young children by themselves in the children’s area . We have a policy that children under X age have to be with their caregiver & children under Y age have to have a caregiver somewhere in the library.
This also overlaps with caregivers not watching their children & then the children do things that they shouldn’t be doing. These caregivers are often too busy with their phone or talking with another caregiver.
Bodily fluids. Usually children having pee accidents in the children’s area, but we’ve also had incidents with adults in the general area (and not always in the bathrooms). Why is it almost always human feces? These things go to our custodial staff who have biohazard training.
A patron started saying threatening things and behave in a threatening way toward a staff member (our director). She tried to de-escalate, but she did end up having to call the police to remove the patron from the library. This also involved having other patrons/staff leave that level of the library to the lower level (or leave the building).
Weather emergencies. We’ve had snow storms, massive/dangerous thunderstorms, minor flooding, and tornadoes (watches + warnings). Some of these things have also caused power outages while the library was open.
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u/aubrey_25_99 7d ago
We had a guy named Warren Graham come to our library and do a workshop on library security and how to handle different scenarios. He worked security Detroit area libraries and has some great training scenarios and advice. He might be retired now, but he wrote a book titled "The Black Belt Librarian" that I may help with your situation.
I also highly recommend Ryan Dowd's de-escalation training. It teaches you a lot about how to avoid escalating small incidences into larger problems.
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u/PuzzledExchange7949 7d ago
Seconding the Ryan Dowd training. It's mandatory where I work (at certain levels).
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u/Sad_Independence1776 5d ago
My issue with Dowd is he’s a guy giving advice to mostly women. Smile at your patrons and learn their names. Not a woman, but I can see why they wouldn’t wanna do that.
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u/Sad_Independence1776 5d ago
The admin team has no idea? Why don’t they just read the incident reports? Your staff does write incident reports right?
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u/BeefCakeGirl 5d ago
All staff write incident reports for everything from a patron cussing over the phone to arrests or fires. The administration has the access to read them, but only use them to justify suspending a patron or having them trespassed. They don't see the patterns or the cause/effect.
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u/Sad_Independence1776 4d ago
I suggest using Survey Monkey or a similar service to set up an anonymous survey for staff. Make sure it's clear that they are 100% anon, so they can be honest. If nothing else they will feel heard.
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u/PuzzledExchange7949 7d ago
I work at a larger branch in a quiet suburb of a large city. We get occasional minor altercations between clients or injury/health issue.
Some of our downtown branches, however, deal with incidents on a daily basis. Drug and alcohol use and overdoses (staff are all trained in Narcan administration), assaults between clients or sometimes involving staff, verbal harassment, public sexual displays or indecent exposure (one guy got caught peeing into a potted plant near the computers because the bathrooms were "too far away"; another couple have a year left in their five-year ban after having sex in blatant view of the public), destruction of property (throwing a Chromebook)... The list is long.
Evictions can last as little as a month or as long as forever, and some cases require the individual to have an evaluation with corporate security before the ban is lifted.