Managing Stress, Building Strength: Supporting Staff Wellbeing in Challenging Times
Session Description
In a time when library workers are navigating rising workloads, community tensions, and shrinking resources, caring for our own well-being is not a luxury; it’s essential to sustaining our service mission. This panel discussion brings together librarians to discuss practical strategies for managing stress, preventing burnout, and fostering supportive workplace cultures. Through real-world examples and actionable tools, panelists will explore how individuals and organizations can recharge and create environments where staff thrive.
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Learning Outcomes
- Identify common stressors facing library workers today and their impact on individual and organizational well-being.
- Apply practical tools and techniques to manage stress, build resilience, and foster supportive workplace relationships across library types and settings.
- Integrate informed approaches to wellbeing that strengthen staff morale and inclusion while adapting to local contexts and community needs.
Presenter: Amanda Darby
Amanda Darby is a Research and Teaching Librarian at Montgomery College (MD). Previously, she has been the Director of Public Services at Washington College (MD) and Access Services Supervisor at George Washington University (DC), and has also held multiple information management roles with the federal government. She received her MS in Library & Information Science from Simmons College (now University) and her BA in English from Bryn Mawr College.
Presenter: Shannan Hicks
Shannan Hicks loves books, libraries and reading! She has experience in many library environments, including public, state, special, law and school. She is also the force behind Librarian Barbie, a brand that includes book reviews, book club moderation, and podcasting.
Shannan holds a BA and MLIS from Louisiana State University. She also has a JD from Tulane University. She worked in the nonprofit field and practiced law for several years before becoming a librarian.
Shannan loves all books, but her heart is in children’s literature. She has served on the American Library Association's Newbery Committee, Caldecott Committee and the Odyssey Committee. Shannan has also chaired the Ezra Jack Keats Committee. She has also served on the Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Committee. You can find her book reviews on Instagram and TikTok. She lives in her hometown of Shreveport with her dogs Nelson and Buddy Kravitz, her favorite book reviewers.
Presenter: Madeline Jarvis
Madeline Jarvis is the Director of the Two Harbors Public Library in Two Harbors, MN. She is proud to serve on a team focused on providing access, arts, and atmosphere through the lens of a rural library. Madeline earned a BA in Sustainable Community Development from Northland College and MA in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa. She was named a 2018 ALA Emerging Leader and 2020 Library Journal Mover & Shaker with the dream team of Lina Bertinelli, Kathy Kosinski, and Tess Wilson, with whom she co-authored the action planner All Ages Welcome: Recruiting and Retaining Younger Generations for Library Boards, Friends Groups, and Foundations.
Madeline serves on the boards for the Minnesota Association of Library Friends and United for Libraries and is always looking for the next great mug of coffee.
Presenter: Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, MSLS
Kaetrena Davis Kendrick is the leader in collective care practice for library workers, workplaces, and organizations. She earned her MSLS from the historic Clark Atlanta University School of Library and Information Studies. Known for her groundbreaking and award-winning studies on library workplace morale—and as a critical hope practitioner—Kaetrena is committed to centering self-preservation, creativity, possibility, and empathy in the workplace and promoting career clarity and rejuvenation to workers.
Kaetrena is the Founder of Kendrick Consulting and Communications, LLC, offering a suite of services to help people and organizations recognize, reconcile, and recover from workplace harm and its associated impacts. She is the 2024–2025 Follett Chair with the Dominican University School of Information Studies, and in 2019, Kaetrena was named the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. Learn more about her work at www.renewalslis.com.
Presenter: Bobbi L. Newman
Bobbi L. Newman is an Associate Professor of Practice in SLIS at the University of Iowa and the founder and principal consultant at Bobbi L. Newman Consulting. She is a speaker, educator, and workplace well-being advocate. Bobbi is the author of Fostering Wellness in the Workplace: A Handbook for Libraries and the editor of Well-Being in the Library Workplace: A Handbook for Managers. Her career spans public, academic, and special libraries, including roles in strategic leadership. She writes for libraries at librarianbyday.net.
