Balancing the Books: Addressing Economic Insecurity Among Library Workers
Library workers face economic insecurity due to low wages, inadequate benefits, and unstable job conditions. This panel will explore the scope and impact of economic insecurity among library staff, highlighting the unique financial challenges they encounter in comparison to other professions.
Through personal stories, data, and expert insights, we will discuss how economic instability affects mental health, career advancement, and job performance. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how to address economic insecurity in their institutions and actionable strategies for supporting financially vulnerable library workers.
About the panelists
Blanca Hernandez (He/Him/El) is an Instruction and Outreach Librarian at Erikson Institute (located in Chicago, IL) working with faculty and students to provide research and reference support, along with finding ways to connect the library resources to the Erikson communities and beyond. Blanca has also taught a semester long information literacy course to the PhD in Child Development program at his institute. His interests include bridging information gaps for patrons and has been involved in mutual aid work for several years.
Brady Niemitalo Woods works at Jefferson County Public Library as a patron training specialist. He spends much of his time improving adult patrons’ digital literacy skills through technology classes and adult outreach. His research interests include the digital divide and economic insecurity.
Hannah-Jayne Duran (she/her) is the Processing Archivist at the University of Denver Special Collections and Archives. Her work includes the processing of new donations to the collection, and preservation and conservation work to preserve those materials for the long-term. She is an active member of REFORMA Colorado and is passionate about connecting communities to their histories.
Kali Draper is a Special and Digital Collections Archivist at Auraria Library, serving the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Community College of Denver, and wider community. She is passionate about the preservation and accessibility of unique materials, especially those that are significant to the history, culture, identity, and interests of users. A few topics relevant to her work at Auraria Library include Aurarian Displacement, campus history, Camp Amache, and wartime correspondence.
Kyra Hahn (she/her) serves as a librarian at the Blair Caldwell African American Research Library branch of Denver Public Library. Currently she works in providing library services and programming to older adults. Over the course of her public library career, she has worked in a variety of settings (suburban, urban, and rural) and worked in children’s and adult services, promoting lifelong learning. She’s been an advocate within the profession for promoting staff access to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness/PSLF program offered by the US Dept of Education as a way to increase financial security among staff. When not working, she enjoys travel, cooking, and listening to audiobooks.
Marcus Elmore is the Colorado Community College System’s Access Services Librarian, in charge of maintaining the online resources for 13 college libraries. He came to librarianship after earning his PhD in English literature and is deeply invested in the role and function of libraries in higher education. In addition to this, he earned a MSW from the University of Denver in 2018 and is passionate about mental health and community building.