A Trauma-Informed Approach to Library Services

by Rebecca Tolley

We are only now coming to terms with how common trauma really is; a landmark Kaiser study that surveyed patients receiving physicals found that almost two-thirds had experienced at least one form of abuse, neglect, or other trauma as a child. Though originating in the fields of health and social services, trauma-informed care is a framework that holds great promise for application to library work. Empathetic service, positive patron encounters, and a more trusting workplace are only a few of the benefits that this approach offers.

In this important book Tolley, experienced in both academic and public libraries, brings these ideas into the library context. Library administrators, directors, and reference and user services staff will all benefit from learning the six key principles of trauma-informed care; characteristics of a trusting and transparent library organization, plus discussion questions to promote a sense of psychological safety among library workers; how certain language and labels can undermine mutuality, with suggested phrases that will help library staff demonstrate neutrality to patron ideas and views during information requests; delivery models that empower patrons; advice on balancing free speech on campus with students’ need for safety; how appropriate furniture arrangement can help people suffering from PTSD feel safe; guidance on creating safe zones for LGBTQIA+ children, teens, and adults; and self-assessment tools to support change toward trauma responsive library services.

Genres: Nonfiction, Librarianship, Library Science, Mental Health, Adult, Leadership

192 pages, Paperback

Published July 14, 2020

About the author

Rebecca Tolley is a writer and librarian who lives in Johnson City, Tennessee. Class dynamics, emerging technology, and scholarly communication & publishing capture her interests within librarianship's boundaries and in the greater world women's history, class issues, food, photography, Southern Appalachia, and popular culture consume her.

Reviews

[kieren · Rating 5 out of 5]

best textbook i’ve ever had. class is over so marking as read, tho i’m gonna be referencing this book throughout my career.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...any psychic damage done to the individual early in life can have serious, negative consequences over the long term."

"A key predictor of whether a person's experience is traumatic involves the presence of a power differential."

"First and foremost, trauma-informed care emphasizes safety for providers and survivors, but it also assumes that the people we serve, as well as our own workforce, more than likely have a history of trauma. Trauma-informed care embraces an understanding of trauma and an awareness of the effect it can have across settings, services, and populations."

"PTSD can be triggered by anything a person senses: vision, scent, hearing, and so on. This involuntary reexperiencing of the original trauma sends the person through a cycle of anxiety, panic, and flashbacks. They can be hyper-aroused and hypervigilant to their environment in order to anticipate and defend themselves from experiencing additional trauma."

"Our lack of awareness and empathy can result in miscommunication on our part, feeling misunderstood on their part, and all individuals left stymied and possibly re-traumatized. Trauma survivors may leave our libraries feeling vulnerable. We should prevent these negative turnaways. While many of us may be familiar with expressions of sympathy for our library clients, we should actually change our approach to easing any pain and suffering we encounter while serving our communities."

"It seems that public libraries handle the "overflow" resulting from homelessness, as Simmons (1985) has suggested. Simmons said that if our social services infrastructure met all the needs of the homeless, then public libraries would not be heavily used by them as places for respite and sanctuary."

"Our Code of Ethics' fifth principle states: We treat co-workers and other colleagues with respect, fairness, good faith, and advocate for conditions of employment that safeguard the rights and welfare of all employees of our institutions."

"Until our customer service philosophy, library and information science education, and professional literature address our professional bias against "problem patrons" and adopt inclusive language, we will leave our users unserved."

"If we change our space and combine service desks, then patrons may feel as though all their needs are being met at one service point without going through needless and time-consuming referrals or the stock phrase "I can't help you with that." When libraries ask their staff to change their behavior, they're asking for a display of politeness, courtesy, engagement, or interest that our patrons experience as sincere-or that we hope are perceived as sincere. But being told simply to "be near" or "connect with each patron with warmth on a personal level" is a surface fix."

"Typically, circulation is about explaining policy and placing limits on patrons' ability to access material, such as, if they don't have a library card in hand, they cannot check out materials. However, service philosophy of reference differs in that policy and limitation rarely enter the conversation, as reference librarians meet the information needs of the person, sometimes breaking the rules."

"At this level, resistance to change is common. Arguments about change and cost savings usually stymie practical adjustments that can move our libraries toward the user-centric model we support-unless, that is, these adjustments don't cost anything or make anyone change a deeply embedded historical practice, process, or workflow. People are so wedded to following outdated practices and policies that they defend wasteful workflows and connot turn a critical eye upon operations."

"As part of onboarding, asking new hires what potential service barriers they spot is another way to uncover this valuable, hidden information."

"...the library's physical environment is significant within trauma-informed approaches to customer service. Space, ambiance, and attention to detail matter..."

"When library staff experience bullying or emotional distress from supervisors gaslighting them, or any behaviors associated with toxic environments, those negative experiences remain in certain spaces."

"Library procedures should make everyone feel culturally safe. Cultural safety recognizes and respects the cultural differences between library workers and patrons and sets up a dynamic in which everyone's needs, expectations, and rights are met. When we work with people from differing backgrounds, our procedures should not diminish, demean, or disempower our patrons, or our colleagues. The library administration should recognize and avoid stereotypical barriers and understand how cultural shock influences both patrons and library workers."

"...many libraries function, or barely function, because everyone is primed to avoid conflict. If we are to believe the stereotypes about people working in libraries, we remain quiet, we don't ruffle feathers, and we avoid direct confrontation. But passive-aggressive feelings (and actions) can still beneath the surface."

"Many libraries are not organized to maximize the human potential for growth."

"Those of us who are employed in toxic work environments experience the library workplace as dangerous, duplicitous, and ultimately, a site for professional betrayal. Whether we are a library patron or new library staffer, when our experiences caution us to be careful and keep boundaries in place, we suspect kindness as someone trying to get one over on us ad our minds race a dozen steps ahead, prepping for the long game exemplified by humiliation, shame, blame, and reprisals."

"...if we've only worked in libraries where betrayal, information-hoarding, and purposeful miscommunication predominate in the culture, how do we know what the opposite looks and feels like? And better yet, how can library workers at service desks embody trustworthiness and transparency for traumatized patrons? They cannot."

"Being nice, keeping the peace, and not wanting to say the wrong thing can keep library staff from getting real when it comes to race. The library administration should be very transparent about the difficulties we can expect when talking about race, trauma, and culture and their effects on customer services. The administration should acknowledge that everyone makes mistakes, but that we are learning to move forward in TIC customer services."

"Sometimes the ambiguity of microaggression leaves the target of behavior with stress, anxiety, discomfort, and uncertainty of how to respond."

"Gaslighters typically tell people they're oversensitive or imagining things. And white people, with no lived experience of racism, are often blind to microaggressions. Typical microaggressions by white people include confusing people of color with each other."

"Isn't this simply burnout dressed up in a trauma-informed approach?" But burnout doesn't always mean that our view of the world is affected, which is one outcome of VT. Burnout combines low job satisfaction with feeling both powerless and overwhelmed in the workplace. VT, by contrast, changes our view of the world into a scary, negative place."

[S - Turnip]

Read for on-the-clock training time. I think this book is needed now, considering how as a public service, libraries not only need to be aware of traumatized individuals, but also cater to them, something that can positively affect all patrons.

Maybe this is just a personal issue, but the section on "warmth coaching" puts me off a little: "Even neurodivergent library staff can learn these skills and meet performance standards in this domain. Eye contact, nodding, and smiling are the three key signs of warmth. As long as library workers can perform these three things, they can fake warmth. The adage 'Fake it until you make it' may also be relevant here." (149) I understand that it is quite literally our job, and we are being paid to "fake it," however, even in neurotypical people, these behaviors are often difficult to keep up during the workday. I would hope that a book that's about establishing trauma-informed services and mentions self-care and psychological safety wouldn't gloss over the effects that masking has on mental health. Again, this might just be me but working the service desk can be difficult when I'm already overstimulated and overwhelmed, and after a while I just can't keep up the act even though I've had years of practice. This might be a good place to write about disability accommodations in the workplace.

All in all, I think every library worker should still read this book, especially upper management. I'm very glad that the idea of ACEs is becoming popular outside of public education, because these traumas follow people outside of childhood.

[Nori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book extraordinarily helpful and insightful. I'm personally married to someone who's experienced trauma as a child, and I'm familiar with the language surrounding the topic. I found myself nodding and agreeing with much of what was said. It's not so much that these ideas were new for me, but I wasn't used to thinking about them in the context of my job as a library director. But, it makes complete sense, especially in the years following and continuing with Covid to think of trauma in this context. I can see this book being useful to almost anyone working with the public. So much of the world now has experienced trauma in some capacity. How can we help them better?

Thinking about why people behave the way they do, and feeling more empathy for them is bound to help public servants do their jobs better. How could it not? But, also, it helped me think about my staff dynamics differently, and I guess everyone's life experiences adding to what we all do.

Again, a lot of this book felt like things I already knew -but spoken to me in a light I didn't see them in before, and I'm glad for this perspective. I do feel like maybe too much time was spent on simple things (like definitions for simple library phrases). But, I'm glad to have read this, and I'm glad to be thinking about public service in this context.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good primer and introduction to the idea of trauma-informed care to librarians. I wished there was more time spent on the more practical aspects of applying this to libraries but I found it interesting.

Chapter 10 "Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues" should be required reading for most librarians, specifically white, straight, cisgender librarians. It talks about historical traumas endured by Black patrons, Indigenous patrons, and queer patrons. With the profession being like 90% white women it is paramount that we keep things like microaggressions, the history of segregated libraries, and the harm of white supremacy always in our minds when serving our communities.

I also appreciated the points about so-called "problem patrons" and how dehumanizing that term can be and to ask, "What is this person's history/what have they experienced?" instead of "What is wrong with them?"

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is understandably written with a focus on libraries in the USA. There is still relevance for libraries in other locations. It highlights the importance of an empathy driven approach to service (and accidentally provides a reminder of the library training for working with people experiencing homelessness). There are are some helpful points about library layout, with reminders about considering the smell of your library. I am not a fan of artificially scented places (they drive me out), and there are a few other ideas which I am not convinced by, but which the author has found effective. It highlights the importance of differing approaches. This is a helpful book on a difficult topic.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2020, this is a very good resource for school, university and public library services.
This speaks of sharing the resources, educating staff, and exhibiting empathy to the community and the staff of your library. How can libraries help their patrons/students through trauma?
It's true that Library employees are NOT psychiatrists or psychologists, but this book will help in terms of better understanding what can be done, even in the smallest ways, to help provide library service to a world that has fallen hard and fast into a PTSD world.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book librarians need to read, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. I've assigned this my direct reports to read, as we serve a low-income area where many patrons have experienced trauma. I gleaned a lot of really good ideas from this book. While dry through some parts, I found it extremely practical and helpful for immediate implementation in my workplace.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very important information on serving the public.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great primer on trauma-informed practices in libraries. Part II - the Six Guiding Principles of Trauma-Informed Approaches is especially helpful.

[Bobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Textbook for my MLIS class, however, I can see this help in modeling my librarianship. Very informative and thought provoking. Great section at the end for planning.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read for anyone working in library services. As this specific topic was part of research proposal for me, I was glad to have found this.