Relationships are the foundation of social work librarianship practice. Social work recognizes the importance of healthy rapport building and it has always utilized it as a guide to communicate, interact and engage with people dealing with complex problems. Librarians have strong relationships with individuals, but they may not understand how powerful the impact of these relationships are when working with patrons struggling to manage psychosocial issues such as: poverty, homelessness, food insecurities, substance abuse, and mental illness. In this webinar ALA Doctoral Spectrum Fellow Shannon Crooks will provide attendees with an overview of the importance and impact of healthy rapport building with library users. Rapport building competencies will be identified and discussed in detail throughout the presentation. Participants will leave the training with strategies for building positive relationships with library users to help manage conflict, develop critical thinking approaches to solve problems and ways to collaborate with library users.

This webinar will be recorded for later viewing by those unable to attend live; to receive the recording link, please register and it will be automatically sent to you. If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to Tor Loney at tor.loney@nysed.gov

Shannon Crooks is a doctoral student at Syracuse University in the Information Science and Technology Ph.D. program. Shannon has a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Social Work from Winthrop and Howard University. She received her Master’s in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University in 2018. Before enrolling in the Ph.D. program, she worked as a librarian supervisor at an urban library in Prince George’s County, Maryland. While working in the library, she strategized how to engage and support the library community. Shannon spent several years working as a social worker in various roles such as foster parent trainer/recruiter/licensing specialist, foster care social worker, teen mom social worker, treatment plan writer, and teen mom life skills group facilitator. Working in social work has enriched her librarianship skill set and guides her practice when working with people in library communities. Her primary research focus is community engagement.