Libraries and Homelessness

 by Shinichi Evans

The Public, a film focused on libraries and the homeless population, focuses on how libraries provide a space for homeless individuals as a community hub but also to escape the conditions of the harsh Cincinnati winter. The library, as managed by the librarian Stuart Goodson (portrayed by Emilo Estevez), also functions to fill the gaps not met by social workers as Goodson talks to the homeless individuals who regularly hang out at the library and hears their stories and humors their eccentricities. He must also address sticky situations, like dealing with highly disruptive individuals suffering from mental illness. Missing from this narrative is how the information needs of this population can be met in favor of the library becoming an impromptu night shelfter as Goodson gets pulled into their protest.

The ALA in their Libraries Respond statement say, “Access to library and information resources, services, and technologies is essential for all people, especially the economically disadvantaged, who may experience isolation, discrimination, and prejudice or barriers to education, employment, and housing.” While the public library as a public space may function as a day shelter for homeless individuals, it also exists to provide them with access to information and the needed resources for that, whether books, periodicals, or computers. The programming a library does for community events and education along with hosting workshops and other services by organizations also helps provide them with information needed to help them overcome “barriers to education, employment, and housing.”

In trying to address the information needs of homeless individuals, there isn’t a one size fits all solution, though “poverty and a lack of shelter” along with “multiple crises” can be helpful in figuring out what their information needs are, whether veterans, those struggling with mental health issues and/or substance abuse, escaping domestic abuse, job loss, or a combination of these categories (Hersberger 2005). Learning more about the population served by the library helps focus what these needs are along with corrdinating services that can be offered in the library’s spaces.

Julie Hersberger adds that, “Practitioners and LIS students should be encouraged to review ALA’s Policy on Library Services for the Poor (Policy 61 in the ALA Policy Manual). The policy states that libraries should strive to remove existing barriers to service access and to improve services provided, taking into consideration the information and services needs of poor people” (2005). Some of the challenges to meeting the needs of poor and homeless individuals is that librarians and staff may not know everything there is to know about these needs and they aren’t social workers, who are better equipped to address the issues homeless individuals face as pointed out in “Library-Based Field Placements”: “Librarians, like social workers, believe in social justice. Although library staff were able to provide access to information, they felt they lacked training in matching information with the complex needs presented and began searching for an answer to more effectively benefit their patrons” (Aykanian et al 2020).

While librarians and library support staff can do referrals with information about services (Hersberger 2005), Aykanian et al looked at the approaches in the University of Maryland, New York University and University of Anchorage’s libraries where they experimented with field-based placements for social work students. While this helps provide social work interns with experience with the homeless populations served by their respective libraries, it also provides a way for libraries to be more informed from a social work perspective as they collaborate with university social work departments (2020).

References

Aykanian, A., Morton, P., Trawver, K., Victorson, L., Preskitt, S., & Street, K. (2020). Library-Based Field Placements: Meeting the Diverse Needs of Patrons, Including Those Experiencing Homelessness. Journal of Social Work Education, 56(1), S72–S80. https://doi-org.ezproxy.palomar.edu/10.1080/10437797.2020.1723757

American Library Association. (2019, August 19). Libraries Respond: Services to Poor and Homeless People. Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/services-poor-homeless

Estevez, E. (2018, January 31). The Public [Film]. Greenwich Entertainment.

Hersberger, J., & De la Peña McCook, K. (2005). The Homeless and Information Needs and Services. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 44(3), 199–202.