Library Services for People Experiencing Homelessness

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/letter-from-public-library-directors-and-social-workers/ This letter was written and signed by 12 American library directors and social workers and identifies some highlights of how they are working with their communities. These highlights are: Trauma-informed care Homelessness A focus on behaviour Creating welcoming spaces Person-first language It provides a great list of like-minded people in American libraries.

This was a great presentation by Rachel Williams about social work practices in libraries, particularly with regard to working with patrons who are experiencing homelessness. The presenter is Rachel Williams from Simmons University. These are the notes I took during the presentation: Rachel Williams - Professor at Simmons University rachel.williams@simmons.edu  Open to being contacted. New key term to consider apart from 'homeless' is 'unhoused'. One way to get library staff to talk about how they feel about working with people experiencing homelessness is to ask them to recount a time they have interacted with a person experiencing homelessness. Rachel referred to a lawsuit that would be interesting to look up - Richard Kreimer (USA) Idea: Look for mentions of 'equity of access' in library policies to see if they exist and what they say. Find: 'Invisible people' YouTube channel (Man interviews people experiencing homelessness) Find: Article by Provence ...

Cronin, B (2002). What a library is not. Library Journal v. 127 (19), p. 46 This short article is not research, but is rather an opinion piece that posits that libraries are not places that should be offering anything beyond very traditional library services. The author provides a definition of a library from a dictionary that he then goes on to agree with and argues against any other roles for libraries. The definition he uses is:   "a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials...are kept for use but not for sale." He states that this definition is non-contentious. He goes on to elaborate in some strong language what a library is not: " A library is not a community masturbation center. A library is not a porn parlor. A library is not a refuge for the homeless. A library is not a place in which to defecate, fornicate, or micturate. A library is not a bathing facility. A library is not a dumping ground for latch-key children." He is not really...

    Wahler EA, Provence MA, Helling J, Williams MA. The Changing Role of Libraries: How Social Workers Can Help. Families in Society. 2020;101(1):34-43. doi: 10.1177/1044389419850707 This is an interesting study of social workers in libraries. It studies: How library staff think about theor roles as supporters of the psychosocial eneds of patrons What they believe are the library's responsibilities in this area  What are some program and policy recommendations for other libraries.  It provides a good lit review including some references to writers who state quite strongly that there is no place in libraries for supporting the psychosocial needs of users - that this is not the job of libraries at all. In particular a published 'commentary' by Ken Bikoff from Indiana University Bloomington who was of the strong belief that there was no role at all for libraries in moving beyond libraries as "a place in which literary, musical, artistics, or reference materials are kept...

There is the idea of Social Workers in the library as working  mainly with a focus on Zetterval's 'mezzo/ approach - training staff & changing library culture - rather than 'micro' level of assisting individual patron needs. And perhaps a feeling from library staff of gratitude about the social worker's presence, but a desire to have them working at the 'micro' level rather than being trained to do it themselves? Maybe given protocols and procedures to deal with customers with high social needs is just another layer of work they do now? Author described some resistance among library staff of 'having to do social work now'. They have been trained, but this work is situated as a source of tension between their understanding of their role and their alignment with their belief that they are part of a democratic organisation and their desire to serve all people.  The lack of clear protocols regarding challenging patrons contributes to this uncertainty...