For over 22 years, Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees around the country on the dos and don'ts of handling challenging, entitled, eccentric, demanding, harassing, or even threatening patrons. His articles, blogs, podcasts, and keynote speeches have helped empower equip library employees at all levels to be more empowered, assertive, and confident when helping users who are struggling with homelessness, mental health issues, trauma backgrounds, and substance use problems. The Safe Library offers practical and realistic tools which will make every library facility a better, safer place to work. Readers will learn: de-escalation skills, communication tools safe workplace habits security measures personal protection methods, and, how to activate one's best customer service skills, even under stress. This book provides advice and support to help library employees best deal with sexually harassing patrons, unruly groups of students, thieves, Internet hogs, and others who can disrupt the safe library environment. It offers best practices for helping patrons experiencing homelessness to follow library rules while staff treat them with dignity and respect; helping staff stay motivated to deal with the same challenging patrons and their accompanying demands, day after day; protecting smaller or rural library facilities and keeping one-room, one-librarian facilities safe; working more effectively with onsite security guards and responding law enforcement officers, to create more consistent responses; and using daily, monthly, quarterly, and yearly facility security checklists to regularly assess the state of your buildings and IT systems. This book is for all levels of library employees, from longtime staffers to part-timers and even library volunteers. It will especially appeal to library directors, managers, and supervisors who have to manage different types of staffs and patrons in different types of facilities, ranging from downtown locations to rural library buildings. Here's the book that answers the most common (and even uncommon) user behavior and customer service questions, or as many attendees have said after experiencing Steve's dynamic training programs, "Here's what they don't teach you in library school."

For over 22 years, Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees around the country on the dos and don'ts of handling challenging, entitled, eccentric, demanding, harassing, or even threatening patrons. His articles, blogs, podcasts, and keynote speeches have helped empower equip library employees at all levels to be more empowered, assertive, and confident when helping users who are struggling with homelessness, mental health issues, trauma backgrounds, and substance use problems. The Safe Library offers practical and realistic tools which will make every library facility a better, safer place to work. Readers will learn: de-escalation skills, communication tools safe workplace habits security measures personal protection methods, and, how to activate one's best customer service skills, even under stress. This book provides advice and support to help library employees best deal with sexually harassing patrons, unruly groups of students, thieves, Internet hogs, and others who can disrupt the safe library environment. It offers best practices for helping patrons experiencing homelessness to follow library rules while staff treat them with dignity and respect; helping staff stay motivated to deal with the same challenging patrons and their accompanying demands, day after day; protecting smaller or rural library facilities and keeping one-room, one-librarian facilities safe; working more effectively with onsite security guards and responding law enforcement officers, to create more consistent responses; and using daily, monthly, quarterly, and yearly facility security checklists to regularly assess the state of your buildings and IT systems. This book is for all levels of library employees, from longtime staffers to part-timers and even library volunteers. It will especially appeal to library directors, managers, and supervisors who have to manage different types of staffs and patrons in different types of facilities, ranging from downtown locations to rural library buildings. Here's the book that answers the most common (and even uncommon) user behavior and customer service questions, or as many attendees have said after experiencing Steve's dynamic training programs, "Here's what they don't teach you in library school."

The traditional, adversarial approach to negotiating, taught in books, seminars, and business courses all over the world, is a reductive approach: each side seeks to gain as much as possible by minimizing the value obtained by the other. If both parties are "tough negotiators," they'll succeed at the second objective and fail at the first. The result: minimum value for both sides. The age-old rules are known; keep your "opponent" guessing; don't give away too much information about yourself or your needs; negotiate from a position of strength and force your "adversary" to negotiate from weakness; use tricks and gimmicks to throw them off their game. The legacy of tough negotiating is, just as often as not, dissatisfaction, animosity, failed deals, broken agreements, lawsuits, and even war. Had enough of the same old shoving matches and head games? Now, try Added Value Negotiating, the breakthrough five-step method pioneered by Dr. Karl Albrecht and Dr. Steve Albrecht. AVN does not begin with the usual "offer and counteroffer" procedure so commonly used in negotiating. The first stage is an open and candid sharing of interests and objectives by both parties. Once both parties have expressed their interests, the method proceeds to the careful and thorough identification of the possible elements of value that might be involved in meeting the respective interests. This is where the "added value" component comes in. The objective is to build as much value as possible into the deal, not as little as possible. The AVN process then uses various methods for "deal building," which is a cooperative process of constructing several alternative "deal packages," each with a different emphasis on various configurations of value. The concept of multiple options is extremely important, because it replaces the "push-pull" psychology of the offer and counter-offer procedure with a cooperative search for mutually acceptable value. Provide a copy of "Added Value Negotiating" to every executive, manager, and professional person in your organization.

Library work is really all about people. And the inclusive, welcoming nature of the library means that all kinds of people pass through its doors. Not all difficult patrons are dangerous, but some frighten staff and other library users, which can lead to situations that are distracting, troubling, and fraught with liability. For more than a decade, Albrecht, a 16-year police veteran, has presented workshops for libraries on dealing with challenging patrons. His no-nonsense advice will empower library staff in their personal security and give them the tools to confidently communicate with their colleagues, patrons, and members of law enforcement regarding inappropriate behavior. In this book he addresses security issues important to all libraries, including: Specific guidance for common situations, such as unruly teens, unwanted sexual advances, chronically homeless substance abusers, and more The elements of an effective Code of Conduct and how to enforce it Tips on how to manage internet usage to minimize potential problems How to align with patrons and use language that defuses the conflict Forming partnerships with service organizations, homeless shelters, mental health advocacy groups, and other community resources How to know when it's time to call the police, plus ideas for increasing law enforcement support Ways to make the library more secure through changes to facilities Through the methods outlined in this book, Albrecht demonstrates that effective communication not only makes library users feel more comfortable but also increases staff morale, ensuring the library is place where everyone feels welcome.