Managing Difficult Patrons with Confidence! (LE@D)

A self-paced, web-delivered course offered by LE@D - University of North Texas. You will need an account with WebJunction to register for this course. The WebJunction account is free; the LE@D course costs $40. LE@D's course description follows:

Description:

Dealing with difficult patrons is a never-ending topic among library staff, especially those working in public libraries.

Every staff member dreads having to deal with a problem patron, but these occurrences in libraries are unavoidable. In reality, the number of problem patron situations is not great, but because they are challenging and often emotionally charged, they loom large in our overall experiences. While never fun, there is a way to prepare staff to handle problem patrons effectively and with confidence.

This course is intended to provide each participant with a basic tool-kit that can be applied to manage a variety of difficult patron situations.

Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Apply a variety of communication techniques to positively manage various problem patron situations
• Apply a number of coping techniques to be able to maintain composure in stressful problem patron situations
• Determine when the problem patron cannot be satisfied and to whom and how to communicate this
• Decide when to call for security or the police
• Assist with reviewing, revising and/or creating library policies that address a variety of problem patron situations e.g. patron-conduct policy, unattended children policy, etc.