What’s Under the Rug: Managing Harassment in Libraries

I was twenty-one, working part-time at a public library, when it happened: A sixty-something man who served on the library board took an unwanted interest in me, repeatedly inviting me to lunch or to his home, telling me he “owed” me for my work. There were whispered rumors that he had made similar advances toward two previous employees, also male. After several uncomfortable interactions, I made a written statement and spoke to the leading administrators of the library system. I was told this was a “serious allegation” to level against a married man and the institution of the library. I was told that the incidents were not “overtly sexual,” and thus he could not be banned from the library. The greatest insult, though, was being offered “self-assertiveness training,” as if I had contributed to the problem as much as the perpetrator. The message I received was that the appearance of a calm, reputable workplace mattered more than employees’ safety and wellbeing. I chose to find employment with another library system, while my harasser maintained his position on the board. Through this incident, I discovered why the majority of harassment cases go unreported and instead of being handled, lead to traumatic suffering or departure from a library system, if not from the profession as a whole.¹ If this story sounds familiar, it’s because harassment is a widespread issue, particularly in public libraries. It becomes even more destructive and demoralizing when administrators fail to manage it properly.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.”² They also note that “harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature” so long as incidents are “frequent or severe.”³ Arguably, it should not matter how many times someone is harassed or even the stated intent of harassing behavior—unwanted comments or touches should not be dismissed as misinterpreted compliments or the harasser’s simple ignorance. If a behavior affects a worker’s emotional state or makes their job difficult, it is harassment and it does not belong in the workplace. Katie Horner, a department head at an Illinois public library, reminds administrators that they “set their own guidelines and consequences for patron [and staff] behavior, and [that behavior] doesn’t have to meet a legal definition for it to be inappropriate.”⁴ Likewise, administrators’ responses should vary based on the details of any given incident. Some staff or patrons may need to be educated about their behaviors; others may display behavior that is best handled with a ban from library facilities. If someone cannot use the library as a patron or employee without causing harm to others, they do not deserve to access that space and its resources.

Kelly Jensen’s survey of library workers garnered 240 unique stories of experiences with sexual harassment, an alarming number of which resulted in no consequence for the harasser and no support for the victim.⁵ In a 2023 survey of 461 public librarians, 411 said that they had experienced behaviors which are legally defined as sexual harassment.⁶ Some survey respondents speculated that a sense of power or authority over library staff contributes to widespread harassment by patrons and coworkers: “‘Board members seem to think they are not accountable to workplace sexual harassment laws since they are not employees.’… ‘Patrons sometimes feel entitled to invade the personal space and privacy of public library employees—occasionally [citing the taxes they pay as justification].’”⁷ LGBT+ library workers in particular report being harassed due to their gender, orientation, or proximity to challenged or banned titles; worse, most of them report that administration failed to support them or exacerbated the harassment.⁸

No wonder, then, that so many incidents are never officially reported: A 2016 study found that as many as 87% of harassment victims never filed a formal charge and 70% did not report it internally.⁹ Often, fear of “disbelief, blame, and retaliation” keeps employees from reporting harassment incidents.¹⁰ One library worker said they didn’t report a harassment incident because “my experience is that reporting is more traumatic than the incident itself.”¹¹ Another said “The [initial] response from my bosses was supportive… Once they realized they couldn’t fire [the harasser], they made me feel bad for reporting it. I was told he was in counseling and to think about how he had a wife, kid and mortgage.”¹² These examples and countless others make it clear that libraries have a problem—not just with rampant harassment, but also with mismanagement exacerbating the harm already done.

Although the obligation of creating and maintaining a safe, harassment-free workplace lies first and foremost with managers and administrators, there are steps employees can take to shut down harassment at the moment it occurs. Ford offers some scripts that can be practiced in advance: “That comment/behavior is inappropriate.… Please stop. You’re being inappropriate.”¹³ Civitello and McLain also provide advice on what to say in the moment and how to shift the culture of a workplace toward safety and inclusion.¹⁴ Employees should look out for one another because it can feel uncomfortable to set boundaries, especially for public library workers. It becomes easier to stand up for oneself or a fellow employee when administrators make it clear that they will support staff in shutting down inappropriate behavior.

In their textbook on public librarianship, McCook and Bossaller establish the core values of librarianship, including social justice and human dignity.¹⁵ These rights cannot only extend to certain patrons or library workers—they must be made available for everyone. Allowing harassment to take root in libraries is antithetical to the values of safety and inclusion which administrators often profess. Library administrators must create open, engaging dialogues around tough subjects like harassment. They must establish and communicate guidelines that define harassment and state specific examples to prevent harmful behavior before it occurs. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommends “ensuring that managers understand their responsibility to stop, address and prevent harassment.” Administrators should also draft or revise policies to better protect workers, and prepare actionable plans to deal with internal or external harassment.¹⁶ These policies should be reviewed, updated if necessary, and disseminated on a regular basis, and all staff should have the opportunity to provide input and feedback at every step of this process. Workers should be taught what to say and do if they witness or experience harassment with a clearly defined reporting process and offer support when they speak up.

Common failures in this last step include asking the victim to confront their harasser, change their schedule, transfer work locations, or take training in “self-assertiveness.” Benjes-Small et al. add that “expecting the victims of harassment to manage their own harassment through dissuasion [of the harasser] is [common but] wholly inappropriate and insufficient.”¹⁷ This variety of victim-blaming is promoted by the American Library Association’s page on harassment resources with its suggestions to “Say No. Say it firmly, without smiling, without apologizing” and “Tell the harasser that you object to this behavior. Describe the specific things which offend you or upset you.”¹⁸ These might be good practices, if possible, to establish a legally sound case; the reality is, however, that conversations about harassment are unproductive when they interrogate what the victim did or didn’t do. Harassment does not happen because of what the victim said, wore, or looked like—it happens because the harasser behaved inappropriately and harmfully, and in many cases because administrators failed to preemptively address the issue. Suggestions that place the burden on the victim reinforce a culture of harassment. Administrators might as well say, “Harassment is welcome here and this administration does not care about its workers.” If that is the message administrators have communicated to their employees in the past, an apology is owed, and the work of repairing a toxic workplace culture is just beginning. The only way forward is to hold harassers accountable and provide care for library workers. What’s been swept under the rug, and what are administrators going to do about it?