Library safety is not one policy decision. It is an ongoing set of tradeoffs between access, staff well-being, and real-world situations that do not come with clean answers. This course helps leaders make those decisions more intentionally.
Clearer ways to assess whether your current safety approach reflects real conditions
More practical support for balancing welcoming spaces with staff safety
A stronger framework for policy, communication, and leadership follow-through
DOES LIBRARY SAFETY FEEL COMPLETELY OVERWHELMING AND NOT AT ALL WHY YOU WENT TO LIBRARY SCHOOL?
You have a safety plan somewhere, but you are not confident it reflects your current building, staff, or community realities.
Frontline staff are absorbing the stress of an increasingly complex public environment with little training or clear guidance.
You believe in open access and welcoming spaces, but you’re trying to reconcile that with a staff that doesn’t always feel safe.
You’ll leave with a plan for turning safety from something reactive and overwhelming into something intentional, consistent, and workable for your staff and your space.
Need flexibility? If you can’t attend live, you’ll get access to the recording for 6 months.
Invoice or PO options: Orders of $600 or greater can choose invoice at checkout. For orders under $600, please do not check out online. Submit this form, and we will process your order manually.
If your leadership team is navigating safety decisions, policy updates, or staff concerns, this course gives you a shared framework to make those conversations more consistent and actionable.
Multi-seat discounts are automatically calculated in the cart.
Assess whether your current safety plan reflects the real conditions of your building, staff, and community, and identify where the gaps are.
Apply trauma-informed, relationship-centered approaches to safety that align with your library's commitment to open and welcoming spaces.
Address legal responsibilities, policy development, and staff support structures to build a more consistent and equitable culture of safety.
Use real-life examples and peer discussion to workshop practical safety solutions you can bring back to your leadership team.
You will leave with a clearer framework for making your library safer for everyone without compromising the values that brought you to this work.
If you're someone who:
is responsible for making decisions about safety, policies, or building operations in your library
is hearing concerns from staff but doesn’t always have clear, workable answers
feels the tension between maintaining open access and responding to real safety challenges
knows your current plans or policies don’t fully reflect what’s actually happening day to day
is expected to lead in complex situations that don’t have straightforward solutions
This course was built for you.
This course is especially relevant for:
library directors, assistant directors, and branch managers
safety, facilities, and operations leads
administrators responsible for policy development and staff support
leadership teams working to create more consistent, sustainable approaches to safety
If you're the one expected to figure this out and support your staff at the same time, you’ll find this useful.
Session 1 | 12:00–12:30 pm ET
Empathy and Safety: The Role of Relationships
How can relationships impact and enhance safety? What are practical ways you can lead your staff through building relationships with patrons? This session will discuss how a commitment to relationships can help create a culture of safety and wellness in your library.
Speaker:
Eddie Kristan, (he/him), MLIS, Assistant Head of Fiction, AV, and Teen Services, Mount Prospect Public Library
Session 2 | 12:30–1:15 pm ET Security Incidents: Trends, Insights, and Prevention
OrangeBoy has delved into incident report data from the past eight years across 45 public libraries in the US to look at what types of incidents have changed, increased, decreased, what data is important to pay attention to at your library, and how we can leverage that data to improve safety. Leave this session with practical tools for assessing your library's safety culture and developing procedures that work for your specific library context.
Speaker:
Kate Jacobs, Senior Consultant, OrangeBoy Inc.
Break | 1:15–1:30 pm ET
Session 3 | 1:30–2:15 pm ET
Ready for Anything: Emergency Preparedness and Incident Response
What does effective emergency preparedness look like across different library environments, and how can incident response protocols be designed to protect both staff and patrons? This session will discuss how to identify gaps in your emergency planning and how to build and test response frameworks that are clear and people-centered. Leave this session with actionable tools for updating your emergency plans, conducting meaningful drills, and fostering a culture of preparedness that keeps your entire community safer.
Speaker:
Michelle Hamiel, Chief of Programs at Urban Libraries Council (ULC)
Session 4 | 2:15–3:00 pm ET
How to Talk About Hard Things: Crisis Communication and Staff Support
How can leaders best communicate to staff and others about a crisis situation, and what should leaders keep in mind to support staff before, during, and after an incident? How should leaders engage with their staff, the media, and their community during and after an incident? This session will discuss best practices for crisis communication, transparency, and staff support. Leave with a better understanding of how to approach sensitive conversations, all while building and maintaining trust and adapting your messaging based on your audience.
Speaker:
Natalie Draper, Director of Library Services, Northfield Public Library
Break | 3:00–3:15 pm ET
Session 5 | 3:15–3:45 pm ET
Safe by Design: Creating Physical Layouts that Support Safety
How does the physical design of your library shape the safety and wellbeing of the people who use and work in it? What role do layout, sight lines, lighting, and spatial organization play in preventing incidents? This final session will discuss how to evaluate your library's physical environment through both a safety lens, identifying opportunities to design spaces that are welcoming, accessible, and secure for patrons and staff. Leave this session with practical frameworks for auditing and reimagining your current space and planning for changes as needed.
Speaker:
Carlos Baffigo, Library Trainer and Consultant
Group Wrap Up | 3:45–4:00 pm ET
What comes next for safety and security in your library? What else do you have questions about or need to know moving forward? We will use this time to make space for a group reflection and brainstorm about the future of safety in libraries.
COURSE INSTRUCTORS
Eddie Kristan, (he/him), MLIS, Assistant Head of Fiction, AV, and Teen Services, Mount Prospect Public Library
Eddie Kristan (he/him) is a librarian in the north suburbs of Chicago who specializes in trauma-informed public services with attention paid to preserving access to marginalized populations or patrons in stages of crisis. He began his career as the head of a security team and was named one of Library Journal's Movers and Shakers in the Community Builders category in 2020 before becoming a librarian. He now works with a team of popular materials and teen librarians and is passionate about access for the public and sustainability for his fellow library workers.
Kate Jacobs, Senior Consultant at OrangeBoy, Inc.
Kate Jacobs works with more than 300 libraries in their role as Senior Consultant for OrangeBoy, primarily through data analysis and measurement to help libraries manage resources and services. They have been working with public libraries of all sizes on incident-reporting processes and data for more than seven years, including creating procedures for data collection and management, staff training, and analyzing trends.
Michelle Hamiel, Chief of Programs at Urban Libraries Council (ULC)
Michelle Hamiel, Chief of Programs at Urban Libraries Council (ULC), brings more than 38 years of public library experience to ULC. Michelle leads all ULC’s programmatic work but has particularly strong expertise in economic opportunity, youth services, civic engagement, and professional development to support the evolving role of urban libraries. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer for Public Services at Prince George's County Memorial Library System, where she led the mission, vision, innovation, and operations of the system’s 19 branches and county detention center library services. Michelle holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Maryland and an Executive Certificate from Georgetown University.
Natalie Draper, Director of Library Services, Northfield Public Library
Natalie Draper has been serving in libraries for 20 years, working in academic and public library roles in Ohio, Virginia, and Minnesota. She earned her MLIS at the University of Kentucky in 2005 and has been the Director of Library Services at the Northfield (MN) Public Library since 2021. In 2024, the Northfield Public Library was recognized by Library Journal with honorable mention in the Best Small Library in America award, and in 2025 was named a Mover and Shaker by Library Journal.
Carlos Baffigo, Library Trainer and Consultant
Carlos Baffigo is the founder and principal consultant of Building Basics for Libraries (BB4Libs). With more than 30 years experience in library leadership, operations, facilities, technology, safety, security, and capital project management, he has overseen major renovations, relocations, technology implementations, and building improvement projects for public libraries. Throughout his career, Carlos has worked closely with architects, designers, engineers, contractors, and other building professionals to help libraries plan, develop, renovate, and maintain facilities that effectively support public service.
Ensuring quality service and access in an unprecedented environment of security threats has become one of the greatest challenges library leaders have faced. How can libraries provide physically and emotionally safer and more secure environments for staff and patrons while protecting their privacy and maintaining open, accessible, and welcoming spaces?
This half-day intensive course, directed toward library leaders, directors, safety and facilities heads, and other stakeholders in library safety, will convene leaders to discuss best practices to build and maintain a culture of safety. We’ll explore and workshop effective approaches and real-life examples, as well as address legal responsibilities, policies, staff support, and emergency preparedness, all in an effort to create safer, more resilient libraries.
This will be a four-hour live session and will include:
Live sessions: Guest speaker presentations by leaders in their field. All sessions are recorded for on-demand access for six months after the course ends.
Facilitated discussions: Audience participation in Q&A and discussion with guest speakers.
Asynchronous workshop: On-demand project-based modules connecting what you’re learning to your professional practice. Includes peer-to-peer sharing via discussion forums.
Online classroom: The virtual learning platform holds all course content and remains accessible for six months after the course ends.
Note: The asynchronous work is designed to be completed over three weeks, but you will have six months of access to work at your own pace.
EXPECTED TIME COMMITMENT
If you attend or watch recordings of all live sessions and complete the online workshop, you will spend approximately 4 hours on this course. You will earn 4 hours of professional development credit and a Library Journal certificate of completion.
ON-DEMAND ACCESS
All live guest speaker sessions are recorded and available on demand for six months following the initial broadcast as part of your purchase.
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
Complete all course requirements to earn 4 professional development credit hours and a Library Journal certificate of completion. Certificates are emailed upon completion.
ACCESSIBILITY
All video recordings feature auto-captioning. If you require accommodations, please email course-support@libraryjournal.com upon registration and we will make our best efforts to support your needs.
