Scholars such as Twana Hodge, Fobazi Ettarh, and Kaetrena Davis Kendrick have helped us understand how standard everyday library work puts you at risk for secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout. They have pointed out how vocational awe perpetuates stories of how library workers overcome adversity through resilience, grit, or doing more with less, which causes you to ignore your boundaries and needs.
Toxic leadership, present in too many of our institutions, fuels low morale, which is an increasingly significant issue across both public and academic libraries, especially so for people of color. In this talk, we will learn how insights from environmental psychology, contemplative science, and design can help us imagine and experience a new, subtly radical way of working—one that helps us imagine and live in a more human and humane library field.
At this workshop facilitated by Beck Tench, you will:
Learn about recent scholarship on burnout and low morale in the library field
Discover things you can do right away to experience a more restorative way of working
Consider how to hold individual restorative practices alongside larger systemic issues