Considering Beneficence as a Core Librarianship Practice
Apathy. Disengagement. Burnout. Contempt. Anger. These are a few commonly reported long-term behavioral and emotional outcomes of low-morale experiences, which I’ve been talking with academic and public library workers about since 2016. Defined as repeated, protracted exposure to workplace abuse and neglect, these experiences reveal the pervasiveness of dysfunctional behaviors in library workplaces. Just as concerning, long-term exposure to harm also results in increased breaches of ethics, and many library workers report high levels of skepticism, mistrust, and uncertainty towards their colleagues and library users.
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