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Presented at the 2022 American Library Association's (ALA) annual conference was a groundbreaking study that detailed the trauma, stress, and burnout library workers face in the workplace. The results of the study are relevant to not only library workers but customer service workers outside of libraries.
Andrew Albanese in Publishers Weekly summarized the study titled "The 2022 Urban Libraries Unite Trauma Study," which draws upon "a wide-ranging literature review, survey responses from more than 435 urban library workers (conducted between August and September 2021), focus groups, and a two-day forum." The report found and described "a range of violent or aggressive patron behavior toward library workers, including racist and sexist verbal abuse, harassment, physical assault including having guns and other weapons brandished, and drug and alcohol issues including overdoses.
In addition, library workers reported significant instances of "secondary trauma" from constant interactions with community members (including children) struggling with poverty, homelessness, mental illness, or drug abuse."
A few of the findings in the report have occurred in our library. We often serve patrons who live in poverty, who come into the library with unpleasant body odors and see the library as a safe refuge. During covid we encountered angry patrons who wanted to come into the library and not wear a mask, acting as if a deadly pandemic was not here with us.
We are fortunate in that the bad experiences during the past few years were few and far between. Issues described above can be made worse if workers are not supported by their fellow staff. If an incident at the library occurs I personally step in, work toward a resolution and document the situation.
The social safety net in our community can assist workers and patrons in need. The United Way's partner agencies are who we point to if someone needs legal support (Mid Penn Legal), have questions about pregnancy (Crossroads Pregnancy Center), are a victim of abuse (The Abuse Network) or would benefit from programs catered towards those with special needs (Compass Community Connections).
I encourage everyone reading to donate to the United Way of Mifflin-Juniata and let your support go toward bettering our community.
Book of the week
If you are going to read one book, give this one a try:
Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton (2022) (New adult nonfiction, biography, family relationships)
Recommended to us by a patron, Normal Family is an entertaining page-turner.
In her debut memoir, Bilton tells two remarkable stories. One is the chronicle of her wildly unconventional childhood as the daughter of a woman described by a friend, without much exaggeration, as "one of the great characters of the Western world."
Growing up "in Beverly Hills in the 1950s in a high-society family -- the prized granddaughter of a former governor of California ... and the daughter of a prominent judge in Los Angeles," Debra Olson was many things: an Eastern spiritualist; an out lesbian in homophobic times; a master saleswoman, making and losing millions in pyramid schemes; a friend of many celebrities; Ross Perot's "civil rights coordinator;" and a hedonist and sometime addict who yearned "to overdose on everything, especially life."
Though her daughters were by far the most important part of her life, the girls' childhoods were marked by instability and loss, with both their father, Jeffrey, and many other second "mothers" coming and going on a regular basis. Bilton's warts-and-all depiction is sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying, always grounded in extraordinary forgiveness and resilience.
The second story is the tale of Donor 150, who was by far the most popular option for those purchasing sperm at the California Cryobank in Century City, recommended constantly by the nurses and the doctor who ran the place. In 2005, more than a decade after his retirement from the donation business, Jeffrey saw a headline on the front page of the New York Times: "HELLO, I'M YOUR SISTER. OUR FATHER IS DONOR 150."
The author was a sophomore in college at the time, and it would be another two years before she became aware of the situation. By then, there were documentaries, magazine articles, a Facebook group, and ever more popular DNA testing. By that time, as she would soon learn, she was dating her own brother.
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Vince Giordano has been the librarian and director of the Juniata County Library since 2015.