The Empathy Project & COVID-19: Reducing Barriers through Online, Case-Based Training Modules for Library Workers

Background: Underrepresented and marginalized communities experience barriers to seeking assistance in library settings. The COVID-19 pandemic intensifies these challenges and further underscores social inequities and bias. Libraries, as centers of community, must respond empathetically, equitably, and inclusively as they maintain physical and virtual services amid a pandemic. This poster will describe the development of an open and inclusive online training, at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), about empathy and compassion fatigue in an academic library setting. The poster will also note how that project serves as a foundation for building an expanded training on the same topics, funded by a IMLS CARES Act grant, which will be open to all libraries and museums nationwide.

Description: A team of library and academic technology workers at UNH received internal campus funding to develop self-guided, open, and interactive online empathy training modules using video, text-based case studies, and interactive tools for workers at UNH Library. With guidance from a prominent library social justice consultant and collaboration with a social justice acting troupe, the team created modules to highlight marginalized voices, provide tools to identify and address compassion fatigue, and present strategies for applying social empathy in academic library settings. This internal project provides a structure for an expanded, IMLS-funded training module that focuses on how library and museum workers can use social and institutional empathy to address inequities during a global pandemic. The IMLS-funded Empathy Project, available nationwide in March 2022, will equip participants with the language and tools to respond equitably and inclusively to visitors from marginalized communities. All planning materials will be openly available for others to use to replicate and adapt.

Conclusion: This poster will describe the lessons learned from the development of the UNH training modules and the next steps for the IMLS-funded Empathy Project. By learning about the overall approach for the two projects, poster session participants can reflect on the practice of empathy as part of library services and be aware of future training opportunities. Participants will be able to:

1. Acknowledge the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of historically marginalized populations and how libraries and museums may contribute to those impacts;
2. Explain how to apply skills, strategies, or models to implement institutional and social empathy;
3. Self-identify and mitigate compassion fatigue; and
4. Have access to open, online training modules and planning documents to use and adapt for their own needs