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- USA Today article identifies a trend in the USA public libraries that “are becoming more hospitable to the homeless by hosting social-service agencies”, organizing book clubs, computer classes and movie matinees .
- Poverty in America features a video Library Should Welcome the Homeless by Shannon Moriarty who worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country, and is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
Notable “homeless inclusion” library initiatives:
- Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina: Angela Craig (“One thing that I love about the library profession is that we serve everyone, we are inclusive, we pioneer good customer service, and librarians are usually up to something cool”) started a book club for the homeless providing library orientation tours by security staff and computer tutors for homeless patrons (see also: Library Case Study: Charlotte Mecklenburg Library by Julie Bowers)
- The Alachua County Library District, Florida hosts Monday movies for the homeless, keeps a book collection at a shelter and opened a social-service center at a branch,“The Library Partnership” –A Neighborhood, One-Stop Resource Center. The space provides a rotating network of approximately 30 agencies dedicated to child welfare. ACLD director Sol Hirsch came up with the idea while attending an October 2008 meeting with the Esther Tibbs, area director of the Florida Department of Family and Children’s Services. The Alachua County Library is the winner of the Library of the Year Award 2010 issued by the Florida Library Association.
- San Francisco Public Library hired social worker Leah Esguerra to work full-time at the downtown library and handle referrals of homeless patrons to social-service agencies. More than 150 patrons have been referred to social services since, and libraries are becoming genuine “community living rooms“.
- Providing library services to homeless at-risk teens in the the Toronto Public Library system
- Further perspective on homelessness and public libraries
Related Articles
- 12 Ways Libraries Are Good for the Country | American Libraries Magazine (americanlibrariesmagazine.org)
- We Must All Serve the Disconnected (libraryjournal.com)
- Doomed? Victorias public libraries are booming (theglobeandmail.com)
- Public libraries provide refuge for the homeless (dispatch.com)
- 12 Ways Libraries Are Good for the Country | American Libraries Magazine (americanlibrariesmagazine.org)
