Beth is an experienced researcher and evaluator who has conducted needs assessments with national, statewide, and local organizations as well as libraries of all sizes. Let her use her quantitative and qualitative evaluation expertise to design and carry out a systematic assessment of your library’s, staff’s, or patrons’ needs and create comprehensive recommendations for better meeting their needs while staying within the scope of your library’s mission and values.

Beth will work with your library to create and implement a program to address the psychosocial (mental health, substance use, poverty-related, etc.) needs of your patrons, taking into consideration the unique context, needs, and resources of your library and community. Having collaborated with multiple libraries and having extensive research expertise of library/social work collaborations, she will use her knowledge of library best practices and common issues and pitfalls to design a program that will work for you and your constituents.

Beth will use her evaluation experience to design and conduct a project to help you understand if your programming or services are accomplishing your desired goals. The evaluation results can inform program modifications, lead to service improvement, and help your library have data necessary to secure or retain funding.

Beth can assist your library with meeting the training needs of your staff. She offers workshops on managing patron challenges from a trauma-informed lens, common psychosocial needs of library patrons, self-care strategies, boundaries, how to address patron psychosocial needs through library-based programming and services, public library/social work models of collaboration, and trauma-informed librarianship, among other topics. She also provides training and support for library leadership focused on trauma-informed management techniques. She has been a trainer and educator for many years and can tailor a workshop for your specific needs and goals, so please contact her with a special training request.

Beth offers skill-building sessions for library staff on how to effectively yet compassionately respond to common patron scenarios, emphasizing how to enforce library policies and set boundaries with patrons from a trauma-informed, person-centered approach.

Beth provides support and ongoing coaching services for library management teams to assist them with implementing reflective practice strategies or making structural changes to better support staff, evaluating and revising policies through a trauma-informed lens, conducting a trauma-informed organizational assessment, or implementing other strategies for applying trauma-informed approaches to their library.