Stuck in a Routine: When Library Routines Become Barriers

Ever find yourself stuck in the routine work of librarianship? Do library routines ever make you uncomfortable or frustrated? While routines can help us get things done and make the library more efficient, they can also represent significant barriers for some library staff. This is especially true for staff with certain identities, including staff of color, LGBTQIA+ staff, and staff with disabilities or mental health challenges. That’s because routines are built around what is normal and familiar, and the further you are from normal, the more likely it is that library routines will exacerbate existing challenges or suggest the need to hide parts of who you are. The good news is that, while the blueprints of library routines make suggestions about what you do and how you do it, they can never tell you exactly what to do. Instead, you work much of that out as you perform the routine. This means that, as you perform routine work, you have the capacity to shift, revise, and even reject these routines.

In this interactive session, you will hear directly from public library staff as you learn the results of preliminary research that uncovered problematic routines, the effects of those routines, and how staff responded to them. You will then be invited to tell your own stories of problematic routines and what you do to work around or revise them. Together, we will critique those routines, dream of a workplace free of these challenges, and develop a concrete plan for achieving that dream. You will leave with tools to revise routines in ways that increase equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. Because, while routines can often penalize staff for who they are, staff can also use who they are to shift those routines.