Caregivers in Sight: Normalizing Parenting and Caregiving at Your Library

Many library professionals and paraprofessionals must strike a balance between their work expectations and their family responsibilities. Birth and adoptive parents, caregivers of special needs children or parents, and caregivers of ill or elderly family members all struggle to fulfill their professional and personal commitments in their own unique and creative ways. Rather than building a session around scripted talks with slides, this session features a keynote followed by a facilitated conversation with the panelists, who will share their experiences with each other and the audience. These panelists include Sonja Staum Lehman, Kat Martinez, Gwen Mayhew, and Ian McDermott. They represent a variety of caregivers from our organization, including parents to young children, primary caregivers of special needs or older adult family members, and library professionals in various institutional roles. ARLIS/NA members on the panel discuss our efforts to normalize caregiving and parenting in our work spaces by developing family-friendly programming at our libraries, establishing public lactation spaces at our institutions, and balancing our caregiver responsibilities with our professional work, all the while recognizing that the needs of LGBTQIA+ caregivers and children, as well as caregivers and children of color, must be central in this ongoing effort. A keynote by Kat Martinez, child care expert and Salt Lake City local, addresses the topic of child interactions in public spaces. She explores how caregivers can model positive guidance, establish clear boundaries, and set realistic expectations in different public spaces, including the workplace. Stories, comments, and questions from audience members are also shared. This session acknowledges that library employees and their supervisors can make small yet impactful changes to their library spaces, workflows, and staffing expectations in order to make our work environments more supportive for employees who are parenting and caregiving while simultaneously working in traditional library spaces. This session took place on March 28, 2019 during the ARLIS/NA Salt Lake City Conference. This recording is made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Related Event: ARLISNA 2019 Salt Lake City Conference