Safe by Design

A Library Leader’s Guide to Safety and Security

Course Details

August 27, 2026 | 12:00 - 4:00 pm ET

Half-Day Online Course

4 Credit Hours

Recommended for public library leaders.

$261 (Save with early bird and group rates!)

DOES LIBRARY SAFETY FEEL COMPLETELY OVERWHELMING AND NOT AT ALL WHY YOU WENT TO LIBRARY SCHOOL?

You have a safety plan somewhere, but you're 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, clear guidance, or administrative backup.
You believe in open access and welcoming spaces, but you're trying to reconcile that with a staff that doesn’t always feel safe.

This course helps you turn safety from something reactive and overwhelming into something intentional, consistent, and actually workable for your staff and your space.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

Build a practical, real-world approach to library safety that supports staff while protecting the open, welcoming spaces your community relies on.

Live session via Zoom:
Thursday, August 27, 2026, from 12:00 to 4:00 PM ET

(Can’t attend live? Recording sent out after the live session.)

Library safety isn’t one decision. It’s a series of tradeoffs between access, staff well-being, policy, and real-world situations that don’t always have clean answers. This half-day live course brings library leaders together to work through those decisions with practical examples, peer discussion, and approaches you can actually apply.

The live session runs on Thursday, August 27, 2026, from 12:00 to 4:00 PM ET and will be recorded for on-demand viewing for six months. For more details, check out the What to Expect tab.

ENROLL IN SUMMER SESSION

Early bird rate is $215 through July 27, 2026. Standard rate is $261 through August 27, 2026.

Need an invoice or PO? Orders of $600 or greater can choose invoice at checkout. For orders under $600, submit this form, and we will process your order manually.

Need approval? Email this course to your supervisor.

TRAINING A TEAM?

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.

Buying for a larger group? Explore all purchasing options

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What You'll Learn Who This is For What to Expect

AFTER COMPLETING THIS COURSE, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO:

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.

ALL THE DETAILS

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.

SESSIONS AND PRICING

Early bird pricing ends one month before the session deadline. Course materials unlock on the session deadline date.

Rate + deadline	Summer Session
Early bird deadline	July 27, 2026
Early bird price	$215
Standard deadline	August 27, 2026
Standard price	$261
Course date	August 27, 2026 12:00-4:00 pm ET

GROUP OPTIONS

Training a team? Choose the setup that matches how you want to plan and pay :

Group course enrollment: Enroll 3+ staff in this course and save.

Bulk course credits: Prepay once, get the highest per-seat discount on every course, and assign seats later.

Unlimited annual licensing: System-wide access for a year with no per-course approvals.

Request Discounted Group Pricing

Questions? Email groupsales@libraryjournal.com.

COURSE FORMAT

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.

SUPPORT

For technical or course-related support, please contact course-support@libraryjournal.com.

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