#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Jun 5 2017

via PDPics

TOPIC

Dealing with difficult library users

Having recently had a situation myself where I wasn't sure exactly how to navigate the issue I was having I thought that a chat on dealing with difficult patrons might be timely. Whether it's grumpy patrons, people who don't want to follow policy, people who make you uncomfortable for whatever reason, or even just vocal people with very different viewpoints to yours we've all had at least one encounter with a patron that could have been labelled as difficult. There are a lot of articles out there about dealing with difficult people in a customer service role, here are 4 that directly relate to the issue in libraries:

1. MLA2010: Black Belt Librarians: Dealing with Difficult Patrons by Brian Herzog at Swiss Army Librarian
2. The #@%& Joys of Library Work by Roz Warren in Metropolis
3. Dealing With Difficult Patrons by Jessica Olin at Letters to a Young Librarian
4. How to Deal with the Grumpy Patron by Gina Martinez in Library Worklife

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 How do you deal with an angry/belligerent patron who is argumentative during your interaction with them?

Q2 Have you ever been made to feel physically unsafe/uncomfortable during an interaction with a patron? How did you deal with it? What changes were made to policies if any because of it?

Q3 What do you do if a patron is loudly espousing a belief of an inflammatory nature in a public space that could make you or other patrons upset?

Q4 How do you deal with disrespectful patrons? i.e. the patrons who don't respect libraries or library workers for whatever reason.

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, JUNE 5 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG.