Poster presented at the 2023 American Library Association Conference.

Sexual harassment of library employees has not been comprehensively studied. In the first study measuring sexual harassment experiences of academic library employees at a single institution, we conducted a census of 1,610 non-student employees at the 10-campus University of California Libraries system. Our objectives were to: measure sexual harassment experiences quantitatively and qualitatively; identify opinions of library staff regarding institutional support around sexual harassment; and produce policy and training recommendations based on this data. Out of 579 respondents to our anonymous online survey, 54% experienced and/or observed sexual harassment at work, 74% did not report their experiences, and University of California Libraries staff were the most frequently reported exhibitors of sexual harassment behaviors. Respondents recommended training, workplace culture change, support from leadership, and clear reporting processes in order to address sexual harassment at University of California Libraries. With this poster presentation, we aim to raise awareness of this issue and provide tools for library workers interested in beginning conversations about addressing sexual harassment in their libraries.

We plan to showcase our methods, including the process by which our study was designed in collaboration with an advisory team, campus advocates, and library administrators, and present our key results visually through the use of infographics, colorful data visualizations, and descriptive text. 

Although our study was conducted in a large academic library, we believe the results are relevant to all libraries. By raising awareness of our methods and results, we aim to equip library workers from all types of libraries to begin conversations about sexual harassment in their environments and empower others to create similar studies and organizational culture change in their workplaces.