Leading with care: lessons on organizational culture from Library Freedom Project
Sunday, June 26, 2022
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Location: Washington Convention Center, 147A
The pandemic has revealed a crisis of leadership and culture in many of our libraries. Since March 2020, library workers around the country have been privately sharing stories of toxicity, gaslighting, unrealistic expectations, and an insistence on maintaining the pre-pandemic status quo above the health and well-being of workers. These stories come from work experiences, but also from experiences in professional library organizations. Morale among library workers in these places is suffering; many are leaving the profession or considering leaving. Burnout is widespread. Those who want to change the status quo in these spaces struggle to know where or how to begin. But it is possible to create humane, caring, people-centric cultures in libraryland. In this talk, members of Library Freedom Project (libraryfreedom.org) will share about their experiences in an organization that foregrounds all of its work in an ethic of care. Library Freedom Project is a community of practice for library workers who want to work on practical, actionable ways to protect library values, especially privacy. But our privacy work is only possible because of the community culture that we've built together and continue to improve and iterate, and this community culture became especially vital to us all when the pandemic began and as it's continued. In this panel discussion, LFP members will share what our organizational values and culture are, how we've created them, how we prioritize the voices and experiences of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, queer, and trans library workers, and how we stay dedicated to these values and each other. We'll talk about how these values have enabled us to do pioneering work in the realm of library privacy, and also has helped us create a community where we support each other, give and receive advice, and genuinely really care about one another. We'd like you to leave this talk with ideas for improving the culture at your own library or professional organization.
Learning Objectives:
identify cultural weaknesses within their library or professional organization and learn methods to make positive, people-centric changes
learn about transformative approaches to organizational culture that foreground care, honesty, and justice
take action items in the form of checklists back to their library or professional organization to assess cultural deficiences and identify paths to improvement