Social Workers in the Stacks: Public librarians’ Perceptions and Experiences

ABSTRACT

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 librarians in order to explore their perceptions of and experiences with social workers in public libraries. All participants, regardless of the availability of social workers in libraries, reported encountering patron information needs related to social services, such as homelessness, food insecurity, unemployment, and mental and physical health needs. The majority of participants expressed the opinion that a social worker could benefit patrons by supplementing and complementing the services offered by librarians. Participants also identified potential challenges to having a social worker, including the blurring of professional boundaries, space, and scheduling issues, privacy, and confidentiality for patrons, and liability issues for the library.

KEYWORDS:

• Social services
• social workers
• interviews
• public librarians

Acknowledgments

This research was made possible by a planning grant from the Florida State University Council on Research and Creativity. The state library assisted in pre-testing the interview questions and announcing the call for participant. Brianna Paulin, a research assistant and master’s student in the Florida State University College of Social Work, assisted in developing the literature review.

Disclosure statement

The coauthors have a relationship with Florida State University, which funded this study through a planning grant from Council on Research and Creativity.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Florida State University

Notes on contributors

L. Crabtree

Lauren Crabtree is a doctoral student in the School of Information at Florida State University. She has a Master of Science in Information from Florida State University. Over the past year she has served as vice-president of the student chapter of the American Library Association at Florida State University and has served as a teaching assistant for Technical Communication for the Information Professions, Empowering Health Consumers in the eHealth Era, and Information Technology Professions. Her research interests include intellectual freedom in public school libraries, social justice librarianship, and law librarianship.

D. Latham

Don Latham is a professor in the School of Information at Florida State University. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia. His research focuses on the information behavior of young adults, digital literacies, and social services in libraries. He is co-editor of Literacy Engagement Through Peritextual Analysis (ALA/NCTE, 2019) and From Text to Epitext: Expanding Students’ Comprehension, Engagement, and Media Literacy (Libraries Unlimited, 2021). He has published numerous articles in journals such as College & Research Libraries, Library & Information Science Research, Library Quarterly, and Communications in Information Literacy. He has received funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the ALAN Foundation, OCLC/ALISE Research Grants, and the Florida State University Council on Research and Creativity.

m. gross

Melissa Gross is a professor in the School of Information at Florida State University. She holds a Ph.D. in information science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has published extensively in a variety of peer-reviewed journals including Library & Information Science Research, College & Research Libraries, Library Quarterly, and the Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology. She recently published her thirteenth book, Five Steps of Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation for Youth Services (co-authored with Cindy Mediavilla and Virginia Walter; ALA Editions) in 2022. Dr. Gross is a past president of the Association for Library and Information Science and the recipient of numerous awards for her research, teaching, and professional service. These include the prestigious American Association of University Women Recognition Award for Emerging Scholars in 2001; the 2019 ALISE Award for Professional Contribution to Library & Information Science Education, the 2020 Florida State University College of Communication & Information Graduate Faculty Research Award, and the ALISE 2021 best paper award (with co-author Don Latham). In addition, she has been the recipient of several research grants. Recent research topics include information-seeking behavior, information literacy, social services in libraries, and cyber defence as a collective activity system.

B. Baum

Brittany Baum is a doctoral student in the School of Information at Florida State University. She has a master’s in library and information science from the University of South Florida as well as a master’s in fine arts from Spalding University. Her research interests center on how librarians can support teen mental health and wellness needs in the library. She has recently published in two peer-reviewed journals, the first as lead author in Public Library Quarterly on social work and public library collaborations, and the second in the Journal of Hospital Librarianship with co-authors, Natalie Greene Taylor, Denise Shereff, Janet Chan, and Peter Cannon on creating pediatric library programs. Over the past year, she has served as a research assistant on a Florida State University Council on Research and Creativity Planning Grant and a teaching assistant for courses such as Management of Information Organizations, Information Needs of Children, Technical Communication for the Information Professions, Storytelling for Information Professionals, and Graphic Novels in Libraries.

K. Randolph

Karen A. Randolph, MSW, Ph.D., is the one of the lead evaluators for the Alliance for Workforce Enhancement Initiative at the Florida Institute for Child Welfare and a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research. She is recently retired from her position as the Stoop Professor in Child Welfare at the Florida State University College of Social Work. Dr. Randolph’s research area is child welfare, with a current focus on technology, youth in foster care, and child welfare workforce wellbeing. Selected publications appear in Child and Youth Services Review, Research on Social Work Practice, and Evaluation and Program Planning.