Cultivating Civility, Resilience, and Reflection in the Library Workplace

Do you find yourself in a toxic or dysfunctional library work environment? Are workplace communications sometimes insufficient or unclear? Are you encountering workplace conflict among library employees?  

Handling these types of challenges can be difficult for all staff—everyone can benefit from a deeper understanding of successful ways to address incivility and conflict in the workplace.  

In this course, Richard Moniz and Jo Henry, co-authors of Cultivating Civility: Practical Ways to Improve a Dysfunctional Library, explore research-based, practical solutions to these questions and many more. Course content will first provide a brief overview of library workplace dysfunction and then will focus on exploring possible solutions through individual, team, and leader perspectives.

After participating in this course, you will be able to:

• Identify several forms of uncivil or toxic behavior found in library work environments
• Understand specific ways that we can treat ourselves with kindness in preparing to deal with difficult or dysfunctional situations
• Improve workplace communication in different situations, both functional and dysfunctional
• Identify ways to navigate conflict and address a workplace bully 
• Reinforce basic activities to heighten self-awareness, reduce stress, and increase resilience in the workplace
• Understand the importance of team design and creating a functioning library team
• Align your library’s vision with work assignments and learn approaches to building an equal and trusting work environment
• Understand cognitive flexibility and the impact of cultural awareness in the workplace

Richard Moniz, EdD is the Director of Library Services for Horry-Georgetown Technical College. Previously, he served as Director of Library Services for Johnson & Wales University's North Miami campus from 1997-2004 and Director of Library Services at Johnson & Wales University's Charlotte campus 2004-2018. He has taught undergraduate classes such as Introduction to Computer Science, Microcomputer Applications, World History from 1500 to Present, U.S. History to 1877, and American Government. Additionally, since 2006, he has served as an adjunct instructor for the MLIS program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Courses taught have included Information Sources and Services, Special Libraries, Library Management and Administration, Information Sources in the Professions, and Online Bibliographic Information Retrieval. He is actively engaged in the profession and has held a number of committee and board responsibilities with ALA, LLAMA, ACRL, CLS, SCLA, SCTEA, and Metrolina Library Association in addition to non-profit organizations such as Carolina Raptor Center, Charlotte Museum of History, and Charlotte's Arts & Science Council. Dr. Moniz has published in numerous periodicals such as College & Undergraduate Libraries, Journal of Library Management, North Carolina Libraries, Library Journal, and Library Leadership & Management. He is sole author of the textbook Practical and Effective Management of Libraries (2010), co-author of Cultivating Civility: Practical Ways to Improve a Dysfunctional Library (2020), The Dysfunctional Library: Challenges and Solutions to Workplace Relationships (2018), Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison (2014), co-author and co-editor of The Personal Librarian: Enhancing the Student Experience (2014), and co-author of The Mindful Librarian: Connecting the Practice of Mindfulness to Librarianship (2016). He also has a contributed chapter in Mid-Career Library & Information Professionals: A Leadership Primer (2015 edition). 

Jo Henry is reference and instruction librarian at the Horry- Georgetown Technical College Library (Georgetown Campus), South Carolina. Previously she was a librarian at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and the information services librarian at South Piedmont Community College. She obtained her MLIS from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and a master’s degree in public administration from Georgia Southern University. She has coauthored four books: Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison (2014), The Personal Librarian: Enhancing the Student Experience (2014), The Mindful Librarian (2016), and The Dysfunctional Library: Challenges and Solutions to Workplace Relationships (2017). Henry has presented at numerous library conferences and has co-facilitated library workshops (alongside Richard Moniz and Joe Eshleman) both online and in North Carolina and South Carolina.

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at  ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.