Cultivating Empathy, Trust, and Optimism: Strategies for Motivating Demotivated Library Teams
Library workers often face challenges in achieving organizational growth when the team is demotivated. This can lead to stagnation in services, outdated practices, and limited resources for patrons.
Demotivated teams can have a detrimental effect on the well-being of library workers. Low morale, stress, and burnout are common issues faced by those working in such environments. This impacts their mental health and overall job satisfaction. Cultivating a culture of empathy, trust, and optimism is crucial for library workers. When they feel understood, supported, and optimistic about their work environment, they are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in their roles.In this panel discussion, we delve into motivating a demotivated team within a library setting.
We address the challenges that hinder organizational growth and employee well-being, focusing on strategies for cultivating a culture of empathy, trust, and optimism among staff towards their managers and leaders. By exploring real-world experiences and best practices, this session offers valuable insights and actionable steps for library employees to reinvigorate their teams and foster a more positive and productive work environment.
About the panelists:
Meghan Connolly (she/her), is the Access Services Librarian at the University of Denver. She received her MLIS from the University of Denver. Her research interests include Accessibility and User Experience in libraries.
Kate Crowe (she/her) is an Associate Professor and Curator of Special Collections and Archives at the University of Denver, where she oversees archives acquisition, processing, teaching with archives, exhibits, and outreach. As Curator, Kate has developed teaching partnerships with faculty and instruction librarians across disciplines, using archival collections to support critical information literacy-based instruction.
Liz Houtz, (she/her) is an Assistant Supervisor for the Sheridan Public Library part of Arapahoe Library District. She has been in public libraries for several years and has experience in adult reference, staff training, and adult programming. She has been a Chair for the Colorado Library Association for their LGBTQ+ Interest Group and was a member of the Mentor Interest Group. Her passions include intellectual freedom, learning about DEI practices, and helping patrons find what they need.
Karl Pettitt is the Coordinator of Cataloging and Metadata Services at the University of Denver. In addition, he serves as an adjunct instructor in the University of Denver MLIS program. Previous research has looked at the education of librarians and assessment strategies for cataloging departments. His most recent research has focused on reparative cataloging and classification practices including the historical precedence of these practices.
Shannon Tharp (she/her) is Resource Sharing and Collection Strategy Librarian at the University of Washington Libraries. Prior to beginning work at UW, Shannon was Collections & Content Management Librarian at the University of Denver Libraries for seven years. In addition to her work as a librarian, Shannon is a poet and essayist who’s interested in the ways that poems and libraries function similarly as sites of inquiry and spaces to inhabit. She’s also interested in the history of small press publishing in the
United States and the correspondences between and among libraries, archives, and poetry.