Survey Results Discussion (Webinar): What Is It Like to Work in a Library Right Now?

Survey Results Discussion - What's It Like to Work in a Library Right Now
A Library 2.0 Webinar with Steve Hargadon, Dr. Steve Albrecht, & Crystal Trice

OVERVIEW: 

What is it really like to work in a library right now? To find out, we asked and more than 1,570 library workers answered, with over 1,800 written comments. Join us for a free, candid webinar walking through what the survey reveals about safety, burnout, staffing, recognition, political pressure, and why people stay in the profession. Bring your questions; we'll leave time for discussion.

The recording and presentation slides will be available to all who register.

DATE: Thursday, June 25th, 2026, 3:00 - 3:00 pm US - Eastern Time

COST:

• FREE

TO REGISTER: 

• CLICK HERE

OVERVIEW:

The picture that emerged from the survey (full results HERE) is of stretched institutions held together by their people: strong collegial support and a durable commitment to the profession, set against real strain on resources, staffing, emotional load, and — for many public-facing staff — safety and conflict.

 

A few of the topline findings we'll discuss:

• What's holding up: about 85% say their colleagues support one another, roughly three-quarters feel physically safe at work, and about 75% still intend to stay in the profession.
• Where the strain shows: nearly 7 in 10 feel expected to provide services beyond what their resources allow, more than half report feeling emotionally drained by the end of the workday, and close to half say their library isn't adequately staffed.
• The uneven burden: experiences differ sharply by setting and role--for example, harassment from the public is reported far more often in public libraries than in school or academic ones.
• In their own words: recurring themes from the open comments, including pay, understaffing, the growing social-services role, and political and book-challenge pressure.

We'll also put the library numbers in context alongside published figures from adjacent public-service professions, and leave time for live Q&A and discussion.

 

YOUR HOSTS:

STEVE HARGADON

Steve is the founder and director of the Learning Revolution Project, the director of Library 2.0, the host of the Future of Education and Reinventing School interview series, and has been the founder and chair (or co-chair) of a number of annual worldwide virtual events, including the Global Education Conference and the Library 2.0 series of mini-conferences and webinars. He has run over 100 large-scale events, online and in person.

Steve's work has been around the democratization of learning and professional development. He supported and encouraged the development of thousands of other education-related networks, particularly for professional development, and he pioneered the use of live, virtual, and peer-to-peer education conferences. He popularized the idea of "unconferences" for educators, and for over a decade, he ran a large annual ed-tech unconference, now called Hack Education (previously EduBloggerCon).

Steve himself built one of the first modern social networks for teachers in 2007 (Classroom 2.0), developed the "conditions of learning" exercise for local educational conversation and change, and inherited and grew the Library 2.0 online community. He may or may not have invented an early version of the Chromebook which he demo'd to Google. He blogs, speaks, and consults on education, educational technology, and education reform, and his virtual and physical events and online communities have over 150,000 members.

His professional website is SteveHargadon.com.

DR. STEVE ALBRECHT

Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained tens of thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, security, and leadership. His programs for both staff and library leaders are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace. His books include:

The Library Leader’s Guide to Employee Coaching: Building a Performance Culture One Meeting at a Time (in-press, Bloomsbury, 2026)

The Library Leader’s Guide to Human Resources: Keeping it Real, Legal, and Ethical (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025)

The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities (ALA, 2015)

Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.S. in Psychology, and a B.A. in English. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment. He has written 28 books on business, security, and leadership. He provides a loving home for four rescue dogs. 

More on The Safe Library at thesafelibrary.com. Follow on X (Twitter) at @thesafelibrary and on YouTube @thesafelibrary. Dr. Albrecht's professional website is drstevealbrecht.com

CRYSTAL TRICE

With over two decades of experience in libraries and education, Crystal Trice is passionate about helping people work together more effectively in transformative, but practical ways. As founder of Scissors & Glue, LLC, Crystal partners with libraries and schools to bring positive changes through interactive training and hands-on workshops. She is a Certified Scrum Master and has completed a Masters Degree in Library & Information Science, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and Psychology. She is a frequent national presenter on topics ranging from project management to conflict resolution to artificial intelligence. She currently resides near Portland, Oregon, with her extraordinary husband, fuzzy cows, goofy geese, and noisy chickens. Crystal enjoys fine-tip Sharpies, multi-colored Flair pens, blue painters tape, and as many sticky notes as she can get her hands on.

 

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS:

 June 26, 2026

 June 30, 2026

 July 8, 2026

 July 10, 2026

 July 14, 2026

New Workshop - "Overcoming AI Pitfalls: Practical Frameworks for Deliberative & Ethical Use"

Overcoming AI Pitfalls: Practical Frameworks for Deliberative & Ethical Use
A Library 2.0 / Learning Revolution Workshop with Reed Hepler

OVERVIEW

Artificial intelligence is now deeply embedded in library systems, academic tools, and daily workflows—yet most librarians and educators use these systems without fully understanding their limitations, hidden influences, or the risks they pose to professional judgment, information equity, and ethical practice. This workshop equips participants with practical frameworks to recognize these challenges and engage with AI more deliberately and effectively.

Participants will first examine how personification shapes AI interactions in consequential ways. When individuals refer to AI as "smart," inquire about what it "thinks," or express concern about what it "wants," they fundamentally alter how they evaluate outputs and integrate these tools into professional practice. The workshop illuminates the subtle mechanisms through which personification influences decision-making and provides concrete strategies for maintaining appropriate epistemic distance. Participants will analyze authentic conversation examples, identify linguistic patterns that suggest unwarranted agency, and practice reframing AI relationships as human-directed collaboration rather than consultation with an intelligent entity. Understanding AI as a sophisticated pattern-matching system rather than an intelligent agent carries direct implications for information literacy instruction, research support, and professional workflows.

The session then turns to the invisible AI systems operating within common academic tools—from email filtering and autocomplete suggestions to learning management systems and library discovery platforms. These hidden integrations shape information access, communication patterns, and professional workflows in ways that most users do not recognize or critically examine. Participants will learn to identify AI integration points across platforms, evaluate how these systems affect information quality and access equity, and develop strategies for maintaining professional judgment when AI operates as an invisible intermediary. Through case studies from academic databases, institutional platforms, and productivity tools, attendees will distinguish between beneficial AI assistance and problematic automation that undermines professional expertise or introduces systematic biases into scholarly work.

Finally, the workshop addresses the institutional and ethical dimensions of AI adoption in library and educational environments. As these technologies increasingly shape how libraries serve their patrons and support academic missions, librarians must establish ethically sound practices that address data privacy, misinformation, algorithmic bias, academic integrity, and authorship. Participants will explore how AI tools intersect with information literacy, labor ethics, and professional responsibility, drawing on scholarly literature, institutional guides, and frameworks from ethics bodies and practitioners. The session provides structured approaches to identifying ethical concerns and translating them into actionable institutional practices that align with professional values and pedagogical goals.

By the conclusion of this workshop, participants will possess a comprehensive toolkit for deliberative AI engagement across professional contexts. Attendees will leave with conversation templates that resist personification, an AI audit checklist for identifying hidden systems in common tools, decision frameworks for evaluating AI appropriateness and reliability, and a customizable template for creating institutional ethical frameworks. Most importantly, participants will understand that effective AI collaboration requires humans to remain in control of creative and analytical processes, treating AI as an instrument rather than an autonomous collaborator. This workshop emphasizes that awareness and deliberation do not constitute rejection of AI technologies but rather represent pathways to using them more effectively by understanding what they actually are, what they actually do, and how they should be governed within professional and educational contexts.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: 

• Identify specific linguistic patterns and interaction behaviors that inappropriately attribute agency to AI systems, as well as hidden AI integrations operating within common academic and professional tools
• Evaluate AI outputs using frameworks that account for statistical pattern generation rather than intelligent reasoning, assess the impact of hidden AI on information quality and access equity, and analyze ethical concerns related to privacy, bias, integrity, and labor
• Apply conversation steering techniques that maintain human agency and appropriate epistemic distance, strategies for preserving professional judgment when working with AI-mediated tools, and best practices for AI use that align with educational and professional values
• Create personification-resistant workflows and language protocols, teaching approaches that help students recognize algorithmic mediation in their research processes, and institutional AI ethical frameworks tailored to local contexts and values
  

The recording and presentation slides will be available to all who register. 

DATE: Tuesday, June 30th, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm US - Eastern Time

COST:

• $129/person - includes live attendance and any-time access to the recording and the presentation slides and receiving a participation certificate. To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email admin@library20.com.

TO REGISTER: 

Click HERE to register and pay. You can pay by credit card. You will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you can access the permanent webinar recording. If you are paying for someone else to attend, you'll be prompted to send an email to admin@library20.com with the name and email address of the actual attendee.

If you need to be invoiced or pay by check, if you have any trouble registering for a webinar, or if you have any questions, please email admin@library20.com.

NOTE: Please check your spam folder if you don't receive your confirmation email within a day.

SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email admin@library20.com to arrange):

• Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $99 each for 3+ registrations, $75 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
• The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $399.
• Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $599 (hosted either at Learning Revolution or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.

REED C. HEPLER

Reed Hepler is a digital initiatives librarian, instructional designer, copyright agent, artificial intelligence practitioner and consultant, and PhD student at Idaho State University. He earned a Master's Degree in Instructional Design and Educational Technology from Idaho State University in 2025. In 2022, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science, with emphases in Archives Management and Digital Curation from Indiana University. He has worked at nonprofits, corporations, and educational institutions encouraging information literacy and effective education. Combining all of these degrees and experiences, Reed strives to promote ethical librarianship and educational initiatives.

Currently, Reed works as a Digital Initiatives Librarian at a college in Idaho and also has his own consulting firm, heplerconsulting.com. His views and projects can be seen on his LinkedIn page or his blog, CollaborAItion, on Substack. Contact him at reed.hepler@gmail.com for more information.

 

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS:

 June 26, 2026

 July 8, 2026

 July 10, 2026