It’s been a year since Amber Clark’s murder. How can Sacramento prevent another tragedy?

The Sacramento Public Library is more than a warehouse for books.

For people looking for work, it provides job coaching. For English language learners, it offers conversation practice and one-on-one sessions with teachers. For young families, it supports early childhood learning. For kids, it offers snacks and refuge after school. For the growing homeless population, it is a climate-controlled daytime shelter with bathrooms.

The library doesn’t charge for these services. Anyone can come and access them. But in a nation where the safety net is thin, and public spaces are vulnerable to violence, the libraries that give so much to our community need more support.

It’s time for us to talk about how we will keep librarians and all library employees safe.

In December 2018, a man shot and killed Sacramento Public Library employee Amber Clark outside the library’s North Natomas branch. Earlier this month, almost a year to the date of the murder, a man stabbed and injured three people inside the Placer County Library in Auburn.

This isn’t a new phenomenon: in 1993, a gunman killed two staffers at the Sacramento Central Library. He was then killed by police.

Sacramento libraries are already doing what is in their power to respond to potential violence. Like public schools, staff go through active shooter training. The library system also offers staff mental health first aid training.

But preparing people for potentially dangerous scenarios, which libraries already do, is only part of what they need.

“When it comes to the physical piece, we have to rely on outsiders,” said Sacramento Public Library Director Rivkah Sass.

Getting new physical safety precautions installed requires funding from the city or county. A year after Clark’s death, the library still has locations without secure access spaces that require a staff key card to enter. Spaces like these can keep librarians safe if they’re being threatened.

“The city facilities team works really, really hard, but they have 700 buildings to manage,” said Sass. But she thinks ensuring better security after a staff person is murdered should rise higher in priority.

She also wishes the library had had some way to know that the man charged with killing Clark had a history of making threats against librarians in Missouri.

“I would like it to be acknowledged that librarians are frontline workers,” she said.

Sacramento Public Library fosters a welcoming environment that serves the community in ways we often don’t recognize. That service should not come at the cost of anyone’s life, be it staff or patrons.

Sacramento and its elected officials need to engage in security measures that require our investment as we look to prevent future violence.

This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 8:30 AM.