New Dr. Albrecht Blog Post: "Can Libraries Become the Driver for Safe Home Gun Storage? A Bold Idea, Whose Time Has Come."

We've just posted a new blog post by Dr. Steve Albrecht in our "The Safe Library" section of Library 2.0: "Can Libraries Become the Driver for Safe Home Gun Storage? A Bold Idea, Whose Time Has Come."

If I had just one wish, where I could snap my fingers and make it happen instantly to prevent school shootings, it would not be about anti-bullying campaigns (which range in success from a lot to not at all); or more School Resource Officers (hard to do today with such low staffing in law enforcement agencies); or better physical security at our schools (the locked, staffed “closed campus” model works best, especially as students enter and leave). No, those aren’t my primary concerns. 

If I could make it happen, I would demand that every single parent who has a kid at a K-12 school and who owns a gun in their home stores it safely. 

You can read the full post here. 

Dr. Albrecht's twice-monthly Library 2.0 podcasts, interviews, and blog posts are available for free, as are: access to 52,000+ other library professionals, our regular mini-conferences, and all the conference recordings. We also offer a series of Dr. Albrecht and other paid webinars and recordings which are available for individual or group viewing here.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

RECORDINGS AVAILABLE:

GET THE BOOK:

The Safe Librarian:
Feeling Safe and Being Safe at Work
Part of the Library 2.0 Service, Safety, and Security / Essential Librarian Series with Dr. Steve Albrecht

OVERVIEW: 

It’s hard to concentrate on your work in the library if you don’t feel physically, mentally, and emotionally safe.

Library staff can feel miserable, de-motivated, and disillusioned when confronted with patrons who have untreated mental health issues, who struggle with substance use, or who have a sense of entitlement that the library rules don’t apply to them. As most are aware,  there has been a lot of talk recently about library staff quitting or leaving their jobs or even leaving the profession because of daily discomfort or fears for their safety. A job in the library dealing with the public requires being service-oriented, but also assertive; being helpful, but also with reasonable personal boundaries; and being thoughtful and aware, but safe and protected when confronted by patrons who are disruptive, disrespectful, and even moving toward dangerousness. It is demanding work.

Librarians and staff have the right to a safe work environment, and creating that safe workspace is a collective effort. This webinar is for both the library leader who is looking to understand how to re-orient their library culture around a safe and secure environment, and for the librarian or staff member who wants to ensure their own personal physical, mental, and emotional safety in their library.

LEARNING AGENDA:

• What library leaders can do to protect staff.
• How leaders can give library staff the tools necessary to report problems, develop responses, and enforce consequences for that small portion of patrons who disrespect the library space, its employees, and its users.
• How leaders can work with their Library Board, local elected and appointed leaders, and your law enforcement agency to improve library safety.
• How to develop personal physical, mental, and emotional safety habits that you can use to feel more safe and empowered while at work. 
• Individually building your situational awareness, coming to work, at work, and leaving work.
• Dealing with awkward encounters, tense conversations, and stressful situations in ways that can minimize the impact of bad behaviors from some patrons.
• Reading situations and people, quickly and fairly.
• Assessing body language, tone, demeanor, and “mixed “ signals in patrons about to erupt with threats or violence.
• Using intuition to decide how and if to approach, intervene, or support our co-workers.
• Applying de-escalation tools that are a bit “outside the box.”
• How and when to use “psychological self-defense.”
• When to disengage in the name of good common sense and personal security.
• Sharing information with colleagues and bosses about problem people, to develop better, safer responses.
• Getting better help from security officers or police when it's necessary.

This 60-minute overview session is another in our “Essential Librarian Series,” designed to be shown to new staff and leaders and to provide a refresher for all who work in the library, and hosted by trainer, author, and library service, safety, and security expert, Dr. Steve Albrecht. A copy of the presentation slides will be available to all who participate, as well as a special training handout "The Safe Librarian."

DATE: Thursday, March 7, 2024, at 2:00 pm US - Eastern Time

COST:

• $99/person - includes 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.
• FREE for those on individual or group all-access passes (see below).

TO REGISTER: 

Click here to register and pay. You can pay by credit card, and will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you 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 have any trouble registering for a webinar, if you need to be invoiced or pay by check, 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: $75 each for 3+ registrations, $65 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: $299.
• Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $499 (hosted either at Library 2.0 or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.

ALL-ACCESS PASSES:

• All-access annual passes include unlimited access to the recordings of all of Dr. Albrecht's previous Library 2.0 webinars, plus live and recorded access to his new webinars for one year. These are hosted either at Library 2.0 or Niche Academy (if preferred).
• For a $499 individual all-access annual pass to all of Dr. Albrecht's live webinars and recordings for one year, please click here. 
• Inquiries for all-access organizational contracts should be directed to admin@library20.com.

DR. STEVE ALBRECHT

Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, and security. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons.

In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. His new book, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, was just published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment.

He has written 25 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives in Springfield, Missouri, with six dogs and two cats.

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.

Dr. Steve Book Interview (New Series) - Mark West on "Theodore Roosevelt and His Library at Sagamore Hill"

We've just posted the fourth of a new book interview series by Dr. Steve Albrecht in our "The Safe Library" section of Library 2.0: Mark West on "Theodore Roosevelt and His Library at Sagamore Hill."

"Mark I. West is a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches courses on children's and young adult literature. His book, Theodore Roosevelt and His Library at Sagamore Hill, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2022."

You can watch or listen to the whole interview here. 

Dr. Albrecht's twice-monthly Library 2.0 podcasts, interviews, and blog posts are available for free, as are: access to 52,000+ other library professionals, our regular mini-conferences, and all the conference recordings. We also offer a series of Dr. Albrecht and other paid webinars and recordings which are available for individual or group viewing here.

RECORDINGS AVAILABLE:

GET THE BOOK:

New Dr. Albrecht Blog Post: "It’s Time for a 'Code Pink' Drill: Protecting Infants and Small Children in the Library"

We've just posted a new blog post by Dr. Steve Albrecht in our "The Safe Library" section of Library 2.0: "It’s Time for a 'Code Pink' Drill: Protecting Infants and Small Children in the Library."

Let’s focus on the possibility of a stolen child at the library. Your library needs a similar plan, where staff has been trained (and has practiced it in an annual drill) to drop what they are doing when they hear a Code Pink PA announcement, move to their nearest entry/exit door, and stop anyone from leaving with a child.

You can read the full post here. 

Dr. Albrecht's twice-monthly Library 2.0 podcasts, interviews, and blog posts are available for free, as are: access to 52,000+ other library professionals, our regular mini-conferences, and all the conference recordings. We also offer a series of Dr. Albrecht and other paid webinars and recordings which are available for individual or group viewing here.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

RECORDINGS AVAILABLE:

GET THE BOOK:

AI and Libraries Mini-Conference: Call for Propsals Now Open | Closing Keynote Announced

Our first Library 2.024 mini-conference: "AI and Libraries: Applications, Implications, and Possibilities," will be held online (and for free) on Thursday, March 21st, 2024, from 12:00 - 3:00 pm US-Pacific Time. Our call for proposals is now open (see immediately below), and we are announcing today our closing keynote speaker, Dr. Maggie Melo. More information on Dr. Melow is at the bottom of the keynote bios. 

We've also set a record for initial registrations with this event--over 3,300 just from the first email. We hope you will join us for this popular topic!

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW:

How has artificial intelligence impacted library services, resources, and work so far? How have libraries responded to these evolving technologies to better support their communities? It's been over a year since generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Dall-E have been introduced in public spaces and consciousness, but AI has been around long before these tools yet there are still lingering concerns, challenges, and considerations. Join us for this free virtual conference to learn how libraries and library workers are engaging with artificial intelligence tools in their libraries from research support to information literacy to technical services. The conversations held in the conference will address the practical implications of these tools in the profession.

Our special conference chair is Dr. Raymond Pun, the Academic and Research Librarian at Alder Graduate School of Education, and the Immediate Past President of the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) and a Past President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA).

We look forward to gathering online with you for this event!

REGISTRATION:

This is a free event, being held live online and also recorded.
REGISTER HERE
to attend live and/or to receive the recording links afterward.
Please also join the Library 2.0 community to be kept updated on this and future events. 

Everyone is invited to participate in our Library 2.0 conference events, which are designed to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among information professionals worldwide. Each three-hour event consists of a keynote panel, 10-15 crowd-sourced thirty-minute presentations, and a closing keynote. 

Participants are encouraged to use #library2024 and #aiandlibraries on their social media posts about the event.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Proposals for 30-minute concurrent presentations are now being accepted. Proposals will be evaluated and accepted in the order received. The link to submit proposals is HERE.

We are encouraging conference session submissions that focus on: 

• How artificial intelligence has specifically impacted library services, resources, and work so far;
• How libraries have responded to these evolving technologies to better support their communities;
• How libraries and library workers are engaging with artificial intelligence tools in their libraries, from research support to information literacy to technical services;
• Practical implications of these tools in the profession;
• Specific concerns, challenges, and considerations that libraries, library staff, and library leaders have faced with artificial intelligence.

OPENING KEYNOTE PANEL:

Ray Pun, Ed.D., MLS
ALA Presidential Candidate 2025-2026
Librarian, Alder Graduate School of Education
Immediate Past President, Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA)
Past President, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA)
SPECIAL ORGANIZER

Dr. Ray Pun (he/him) is the academic and research librarian at the Alder Graduate School of Education, a teacher residency program in California, where he supports all library services from scholarly communication to acquisition by engaging with graduate students and teacher educators. Previously, Pun worked and taught at Stanford University, Fresno State, New York University Shanghai, and the New York Public Library in various roles. Pun is an active member of the American Library Association (ALA) and Library Freedom Project (LFP) and is the Past President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) and the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA). In addition, Pun is an ALA Presidential candidate for 2025-2026.

 

IdaMae Craddock
Librarian, Albemarle County Public Schools, Community Lab Schools, Virginia
OPENING KEYNOTE PANEL

A 22 year veteran of Albemarle County, IdaMae Craddock, M.Ed is the librarian at the Community Lab Schools. Ms. Craddock has conducted seminars at the White House, the Bay Area MakerFaire, and South Carolina Association of School Libraries. Ms. Craddock is Virginia's 2019 Librarian of the Year and was named a Darden Fellow at Old Dominion University in 2019 as well. Winner of the Magna Award from the National Association of School Boards, her publishing credits include Library High-Tech, School Library Journal, and Knowledge Quest. The focus of her research is Maker Education and the role of school libraries in the community. Her program has been profiled by School Library Journal, Library Media Connection, NPR, and Edutopia. She has a precocious daughter, an understanding husband, and a lazy dog named Peacha.

 

Dr. Brandy McNeil
Deputy Director, Programs & Services. The New York Public Library
OPENING KEYNOTE PANEL

Dr. Brandy McNeil focuses on community needs through game-changing innovations to build successful adult education programs in the 89 branches under her stewardship across NYC. Building the highly successful TechConnect program, Dr. McNeil has established partnerships with Apple, Spotify, Google, and Microsoft to name a few. Through her inspirational leadership, she has made it her mission to help underserved communities to ensure equitable access to technology, knowledge, and opportunity. Dr. McNeil is also a contributing writer of the book titled Libraryland; It's All About The Story published in 2020 and has appeared in various publications. Dr. McNeil holds a Doctorate in Business and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship. Previously, she worked for several Fortune 500 companies and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Public Library Association and was on the Black Caucus of ALA Executive Board. In her spare time, she is an entrepreneur, consultant, and motivational speaker.

 

Leo S. Lo
Dean/Professor, College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences, University of New Mexico
OPENING KEYNOTE PANEL

Dr. Leo S. Lo (he, him, his) joined the University of New Mexico as Dean and Professor of the College of University Libraries and Learning Services (CULLS) in September 2021. He oversees over 120 full time faculty and staff and provides leadership for all University Libraries operations, Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences (OILS) program, and the UNM Press.

CLOSING KEYNOTE CONVERSATION: DR. RAY PUN WITH DR. MAGGIE MELO

Dr. Maggie Melo
Assistant Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science
CLOSING

Maggie Melo is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a recipient of an NSF CAREER award, recognized for her expertise in studying information seeking behaviors among students from underrepresented communities in makerspaces. Her research focus extends to generative AI (GenAI), with an emphasis on how first-generation students of color use GenAI for academic help seeking. She is currently serving on the UNC Generative AI committee, where her role involves shaping guidance for faculty, researchers, and students in the use of generative AI tools. Her contributions in GenAI have gained recognition through talks, podcasts, and opinion pieces.

 

This is a free event, being held live online and also recorded.
REGISTER HERE
to attend live and/or to receive the recording links afterward.
Please also join the Library 2.0 community to be kept updated on this and future events. 

The School of Information at San José State University is the founding conference sponsor. Please register as a member of the Library 2.0 network to be kept informed of future events. Recordings from previous years are available under the Archives tab at Library 2.0 and at the Library 2.0 YouTube channel.