Leadership

The Library Leader's Guide to Human Resources: Keeping it Real, Legal, and Ethical
Steve Albrecht
Amazon Link

The human resources (HR) function for libraries can range in size and scope, depending on the size of the library. The complexities of HR today call for a guiding manual to help keep the multitude of processes fair, legal, and accurate. This book provides the level of detail for new and seasoned HR leaders to use to staff and operate their libraries with the best employees they can find. It offers legal advice from labor law attorneys, and operational steps, policies, and processes from Dr. Steve Albrecht, a longtime HR consultant for municipal government.

Even with the support of an HR Department (however large or small), all library leaders who have supervisory responsibility over their staff (hiring, firing, performance evaluation, assigning job duties) must have a working, updated knowledge of HR issues related to employing people in their branches. (And don’t forget that even student interns, unpaid volunteers, and part-time employees have similar employment rights as full-time, paid employees.) This means that besides the myriad of other duties required to run a safe, efficient, useful library for the community, library leaders - from the Director, to the department heads, to the managers, to the frontline supervisors, to the PIC (Person in Charge on each work shift) - each must know what they can and cannot do when it comes to HR laws, policies, guidelines, and best practices.

This includes:

  • legal issues related to screening interviewing, and hiring applicants;
  • successful on-boarding and new-employee orientation programs;
  • coaching for improved work performance or employee behavior;
  • mentoring employees for both promotional opportunities and succession planning;
  • the challenges of attendance, sick leave, ADA and FMLA issues;
  • fair and legal performance evaluations;
  • working with employees in a union or an association;
  • HR practices related to testing, promoting, disciplining, or terminating library employees;
  • and keeping all employees motivated and connected, using wellness, stress management, and programs to prevent burnout or “quiet quitting.”

Other books for library leaders may touch on HR issues as part of a broader look at supervising employees. This book will focus on it.

For library coaching services provided by Dr. Steve Albrecht, please go to https://www.librarycoach.com.

Interview with Lauren Hays, PhD

Please introduce yourself.

I’m Dr. Steve Albrecht, a nationally known library service, safety, and security consultant. I have consulted and trained library leaders and staff members since 2000. I have written 27 books on leadership, service, security, and criminal justice topics. I started working for libraries in California, based on my earlier efforts in workplace violence prevention and keeping staff and facilities safe. In 1994, I co-wrote one of the first business books on workplace violence and my movement to libraries came as I was asked to help their staffs with patron behavioral issues. I’m board-certified in human resources, security, employee coaching, and threat assessment. I’m represented by Library 2.0, a free membership organization for library professionals, where I provide in-person programs, webinars, blogs, podcasts, and training resources. I live in Springfield, Missouri. 

Briefly summarize The Library Leader's Guide to Human Resources.

This book came to life based on my relationship with Rowman and Littlefield, who published my 2023 book, The Safe Library. We were talking about my next title for them and I said I wanted to write a book for library leaders who had to perform human resources functions for their libraries. HR can be a complex subject, with lots of legal issues and operational tasks, all designed to help leaders choose the right people for their libraries and then work diligently to create an environment where they feel supported, challenged, and praised.   

Why did you decide to write this book?

I wanted to provide a resource for library leaders, who may have a limited background in HR, to be able to operate their libraries successfully, legally, and fairly. I have a bit of a lighter touch when I write, so I believe I can cover complex issues in a way that is useful and even entertaining, to make  the various HR tasks easier to do. In the Introduction, I define my audience for this book as library leaders who may have to be either a one-person HR shop, or manage an HR professional who supports their goals, or manage an HR department. The more HR resources you have in your library - HR directors or managers, HR analysts and support staff - the easier it is help you reaching your hiring, staffing, training, and promotion goals. But I also wrote the book for the library leader who has to do all those things alone.

The book covers everything from onboarding to employees leaving the library. Do you feel that there is one part of the employee lifecycle that is more challenging for library leaders? If so, why?

I’m not a fan of the “digitized” way we hire people, in all professions, these days. I feel like when we ask applicants to scan in their resumes or applications and then we use AI tools or other filtering software to only look for key words, it screens out and eliminates people who don’t know all those tricks. I have said in this book that we should not discount the value of having people working in the HR function in the library actually read resumes and applications and make decisions to bring in people for interviews, instead of just having the machines do it. I also advocate for posting the salary and benefits in the job postings, so that applicants don’t waste their time applying for jobs that don’t meet their requirements.       

I was particularly interested in the part of the book description that stated the book includes how to keep "all employees motivated and connected, using wellness, stress management, and programs to prevent burnout or 'quiet quitting.'" Why did you include this in the book?

At Library 2.0, I work with several colleagues who focus on employee burnout, stress management, and employee wellness. Library staffers have dealt with a lot of national issues, especially since the pandemic, related to book bannings, content protests, and a general decline in civil behavior in the library from unruly, rude, or frustrated patrons. All of that affects employee retention, morale, and the health of the work culture. It feels like to me that the process of formally onboarding new library employees and then working together to keep the work culture healthy is the biggest HR challenge. We don’t often pay library people enough for the work they do (and the degrees, experience, and certifications they have earned) and so the burnout factor is real. I wanted library leaders to see the HR function as a way to hire the right people for this challenging public-contact work and then create an environment where they want to stay.

Would you recommend this book for those who are interested in becoming library leaders, or is it primarily for current library leaders? 

I often teach training programs or do webinars where I teach leadership-related subjects and I say to the audience, “This subject is for you if you are a library leader or you want to be one some day.” What I discuss in this book is about leading and serving library staff members at every level, starting with the PIC (Person In Charge) for a work shift, on up to the director of the library. I devote an entire chapter to talk about the value of coaching library employees, at every level, to help them promote or improve their work knowledge, and to correct performance or behavior problems. I do nearly as much training and consulting work for small and rural library districts as I do for large ones, and my book is designed to give the readers the tools to be successful with all major HR functions, no matter their size.  

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I just signed the contract with Rowman and Littlefield to write the next “library leaders” book. The new one makes logical sense to me as the next useful subject, The Library Leader’s Guide to Coaching: Building a Performance Culture One Meeting at a Time. It will be out in the Spring of 2026.