The anxious, the furious, and the annoyed: Hidden shame in the academic library

Abstract

In March 2018, my manuscript on library shame was published in College & Research Libraries. The paper’s focus is library anxiety, but more accurately it is about the shared experience of normal shame for both the librarian and the user. When shame is misidentified as maladaptive behavior by both the librarian and user, it results in alienation or conflict. When shame is identified by the librarian as normal, it strengthens the relationship with the user.