The supported research was well presented. Great, confident presenter who has worked a variety of fields… I enjoyed the group activity to better learn our personal thinking styles. Also, it was nice to meet other library staff from libraries across SoCal.
-Participant quote
In April, CALL responded to requests for more professional development opportunities in the area of trauma-informed librarianship with our first ever on-ground workshops. Dr. Elizabeth Wahler, who is the Director of the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and founder/owner of Beth Wahler Consulting, brought Managing Patron Challenges Through a Trauma-Informed Lens to four locations across the state. Dr. Wahler’s wealth of experience working with both individual and large library systems across the country to assess the psychosocial needs of patrons and address staff challenges in dealing with those issues ensured that this training was highly informative, insightful and helpful for those in attendance.
Attendees reported that being able to get together face-to-face and work interactively in groups was especially impactful, and that they appreciated some much-needed focus on their own secondary trauma as library workers. As one workshop participant raved, “The whole thing was outstanding.”
Participants at all four workshops were clear that they want more training opportunities that support library workers in the increasingly stressful aspects of their daily work life and that they were hopeful that their library leadership would have additional opportunities to attend this type of training, as well. The CALL Team heard you loud and clear. Stay tuned in the coming months for more trauma-informed service training targeted at administrators and management, as well as additional self-care strategies for library staff.
In case you weren’t able to attend this round of in-person workshops, you can check out Dr. Wahler’s related recordings in CALL Academy:
