Thesis-1995-McGrath.pdf (1.92 MB)

A survey of violence in public libraries

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educational resource
posted on 07.03.2016, 14:40 by Hannah M. McGrath
This research investigates the extent to which violent and aggressive behaviour by library users is a recognised problem in public libraries, and seeks to identify preventive measures to reduce the problem and improve the working environment for staff. Public libraries in four counties were surveyed, questionnaires being completed by various types of library staff. A review of the relevant literature identifies the issues surrounding violence in the workplace and analyses violent behaviour in libraries and the various types of problem users. The results indicate that public libraries suffer from a wide range of problem users. Serious incidents which involve physical assault are rare, although verbal abuse is widespread and is generally tolerated by staff who regard it as 'part of the job'. The role of the Library Charter and the concept of customer care as a means of reducing aggressive situations in libraries are discussed. Although customer care is largely regarded as sufficient training for reducing aggression in customers, many staff would prefer specific training for dealing with difficult situations, as well as the provision of security cameras and other deterrents. The use of personal alarms was also suggested as a means of summoning help once a situation became potentially violent or when an incident actually occurred.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Information Science

Publisher

© H. M. McGrath

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

1995

Notes

A Masters Dissertation, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Arts degree of Loughborough University

Language

en

Qualification name

MA

Qualification level

Masters

Exports

Loughborough Theses

Keywords

Exports
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