Library school teaches librarians why libraries exist, but it is the responsibility of each institution to ensure that paraprofessionals understand our mission. Our goal was to develop an ongoing course that would instill this foundational understanding into all of our staff and not just librarians. This was an effort to have a conversation with staff about why working in a public library is different from working in a store. By giving staff deeper knowledge of and appreciation for the role of public libraries as civic institutions, we can provide critical context around how and why we function as we do.

The training had four sections: historical context of libraries, Core Value case studies, an overview of the life cycle of a book, and a current context section comparing DCPL to similar institutions. The ALA Core Values were threaded throughout. Staff were also given some case studies and asked to discuss. Topics included the role of the library in crisis situations (Hurricane Sandy, unrest in Baltimore) and censorship/book banning requests. All paraprofessional staff were required to participate, and were given a set of reflection questions to discuss with their manager following the training.

In under a year, a team identified learning objectives, created a training framework, built out the training modules, and delivered the training to 188 library technicians and associates. We plan to adapt this training for departments such as Public Safety and Facilities to ensure that the organization has a strong grasp on our core values. One of the many positive comments we heard is, “I enjoyed the examples about times that library policies/beliefs (freedom of speech, democracy) came under question because individuals had varying ideas about what was and was not appropriate and the library stuck to their core values.