When we talk about trauma in the context of library work, it’s important to remember that trauma rarely exists in isolation. It often intersects with other forms of stress, exhaustion, and harm that shape how we experience our jobs and relate to our communities. Some of these experiences may not qualify as trauma in a clinical sense but are still deeply impactful. Understanding the range of related terms can help us more accurately describe what we’re going through, validate our own and others’ experiences, and begin to imagine healthier, more supportive workplace cultures. Trying to name and understand our experiences is where our 2022 Urban Library Trauma Study came from.
Within trauma is also vital to acknowledge the spectrum of trauma. Due to your own lived experiences what may be traumatic for you, might not be for a colleague and vice-versa. Trauma can be defined as a common human response when something happens to the embodied self that is too fast or too soon and overwhelms the system. It can be physical, emotional, social, or a mixture and has long-lasting negative impacts on the ability to function, and the social, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual well being of an individual (APA; Menakem, 2017; SAMHSA, 2014)
Here are some examples of common types of trauma from the University of Denver Office of Teaching and Learning:
| Community/National | Examples: Mass shooting, terrorism, police violence |
| Generational/Historical | Examples: Enslavement of Black people, Native American genocide, the Holocaust |
| Sexual and Gender | Examples: Sexual assault, gender violence, lgbtqia2s+ violence |
| Racial | Examples: racism, microaggressions, police brutality, abuse |
| Disaster/Conflict | Examples: loss of a loved one, war, displacement, loss of home |
| Health/Healthcare | Examples: lack of healthcare, compounding illness, lack of gender affirming healthcare |
One of our fearless former Peer Leaders, contributor to the Trauma Study, and current Training Committee Chair, Elizabeth Portillo came up with a really interesting way of discussing types of trauma, or what she calls “big T and little t types of trauma“. Big T Trauma are things that people openly know are traumatic: war, violence, etc. Whereas little t trauma are the day to day things that build and build into trauma: they are the microaggressions, the things that activate us in minor ways but over and over again. Both types of trauma are valid and difficult and deserve empathy and care.
Now that we have defined trauma, let’s look at some related terms that can coexist with, contribute to, or resemble trauma, though they are slightly different. One such term is burnout—physical and mental exhaustion leading to a decreased ability to cope. It can involve fatigue, sense of hopelessness, frustration, reduced happiness at work or other responsibilities (CCP). Burnout can occur alongside trauma or even contribute to it, but it is not the same thing.
Building on the idea of burnout, researcher Kaetrena Davis Kendrick has examined another workplace phenomenon known as low-morale experiences. She defines this as the result of sustained abuse and neglect in the workplace (Kendrick. 2023) . While distinct from burnout, low morale similarly reflects how harmful work environments can wear down individuals over time.
In addition to burnout and low morale, many library workers also experience compassion fatigue. This refers to the physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion that stems from caring for others who are in pain or distress (OVC, 2026). In our roles as library workers, we often serve patrons who are struggling and seek our help—not just for information, but also for emotional support. This ongoing care work can become depleting.
While compassion fatigue and burnout are closely related in that both involve exhaustion, they differ in origin. Burnout typically arises from chronic stress/work more generally, whereas compassion fatigue specifically results from caring for others. For example, an office worker with no public-facing responsibilities may experience burnout, but is less likely to suffer from compassion fatigue. In contrast, most public-facing library workers are vulnerable to experiencing both.
Two terms that I have often seen interchangeably used both in librarianship and outside of it is Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) and Vicarious trauma. Much like burnout and compassion fatigue there is a level of overlap but there are also some important differences. Secondary Traumatic Stress is an emotional stress when you hear secondarily about a traumatic experience or experiences that someone else has experienced (NCTSN). In this we are not a primary witness to this trauma, but feel stress after having it relayed to us. Where as Vicarious Trauma is a shift in your attitude/world view after you have experienced prolonged exposure to other people’s suffering. So while both deal with witnessing others suffering (OVC). STS is getting a second hand recollection of suffering, vicarious trauma is watching it happen even if it is not happening directly to us. Again, there is overlap where this could be a both and situation. For example, if multiple patrons are sharing their negative experiences with the police you may feel emotional stress from hearing their stories and experience STS. And if this continues to happen and you start to see how politicians are treating your community members, and it changes your worldview, that could be more like vicarious trauma.
The last term I think it is useful to discuss is Moral Injury. Moral Injury is a moral distress that happens when folks witness or learn about things that are being done that challenge or violate a deeply held moral belief or value (VA). Fun fact – this term is what put me on my path to study trauma and mental health in libraries. While I think this can be applied when we see the suffering that our community members face, I also think it can be applied in smaller ways too. For example, when I was a baby librarian one of my held values and beliefs about myself and the profession is that my job and my skills allowed me to maybe not know the answer for everything but at least know where to look or who to refer patron to. However, library reality is different. I realized this one day when I had a pregnant patron come to the library during COVID-19. She was looking for prenatal care and had just escaped a domestic abuse situation and as such as no identifying paperwork. Until she got her new documents, there was nothing I could do, there were no services to refer her to that she hadn’t already tried and after I exhausted that, there was no answer or solution that day. It is something I still think about, and while this was not a traumatic incident it deeply impacted me, my trajectory, and how I thought about librarianship and the work I was doing. It was moral injury.
So while this is not an exhaustive list of terms surrounding trauma and worker mental health, I hope that these terms are useful in describing your experiences and advocating for yourself. Regardless of what you call it these things are all hard to deal with and heal from. Also all of these things are real and you are an expert in your own experiences and know what feels right to call them. While I always hesitate to ascribe these terms to other’s experiences, I think they can also be helpful in understanding our coworkers and our communities more as well.
If you need a place to talk about your experiences and work out these definitions more please check out our Library Worker Support Network which is online, free, and open to any library worker, at any type of library, of any size.
