As the safety of staff and patrons is quickly becoming a growing concern for libraries across Ontario, staff at the Guelph Public Library are getting proactive, rolling out trauma-informed staff training in the fall.
Library CEO Steve Kraft said it’s a first for them, and is primarily about the safety and security of customers and staff.
“We need to educate ourselves. Trauma is out there in the community; some of our customers experience trauma, and they come into the library, and we need to respond to them if they need help,” he said.
He’s expecting it to educate staff on the different types of trauma people experience, as well as training around mental health challenges and addictions and how to respond to them. In addition, it should cover how to prepare for traumatizing things library staff might witness as frontline workers.
Kraft pointed to bigger cities Toronto and Winnipeg, where libraries have been experiencing an increase in serious incidents of physical and verbal violence.
“What we're trying to do is get ahead of this,” he said. “We're aware of (what’s happening) in some of the larger cities, and we hope that none of that behaviour comes to the city. But again, we're a growing city, and we need to be prepared for things.”
The library did see an uptick of ‘customer incidents’ in January, which include accidents where patrons are injured but don’t require emergency services, and patrons who go against library standards of behaviour, for instance theft or abusive language.
In January, there were a total of 24 of these incidents. However, GPL human resources rep Carolyn Elston-Ryder attributes much of this to the fact that January “is often a challenging time of year for individuals.”
This is exacerbated by the fact that February and March returned to a more typical rate of customer incidents – 12 and 15, respectively.
Many of those incidents, too, were the same people.
“I would define most of them as interactions where we were required to speak to the individuals about the trespass notice and ask them to leave the premises until the trespass time has passed,” she said in an email.
Still, Kraft said the training should “reassure staff and make them more comfortable in dealing with serious situations, because we’re not prepared for this when we come out of library school or any of our post-secondary training,” he said.
Regarding the New Central Library, he said they don’t plan on hiring social workers like some libraries have done, but will increase staff and onboard them accordingly with this type of training.
He said they also plan to continue partnering with local organizations like Royal City Mission, Stonehenge, the Community Health Centre and Stepping Stone, an approach that has been “more appropriate in our community,” compared to bringing in social workers.
These organizations typically provide immediate support when someone is in crisis, and representatives drop by daily to check in.
Guelph Police Services have also been “really responsive whenever we need them,” he said.
“This is something that is going to be constant, it doesn't look like it's something that we can eliminate in the future,” he said. “Who knows what the future is going to look like in two, three years. But at least we’ll be prepared.”
