2019-04-05 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 3, Issue 2

Featured Story

Resources for Dealing with Patrons Experiencing Homelessness

I recently read The Library Book by Susan Orlean who uses her research of the Los Angeles Central Library fire on April 26, 1986 as a lens for looking at the relevance of libraries today. In her book she says:

“One of the few places homeless people are welcomed, given access to computers and the Internet, and permitted to dally all day (unless they act out) is a public library. Libraries have become a de facto community center for the homeless across the globe. Every library in the world has probably grappled with the issue on how – and how much – to provide for the homeless. Many librarians have told me that they consider this the defining question facing libraries right now, and that they despair of finding a balance between welcoming homeless people and somehow accommodating other patrons who occasionally are scared of them or find them smelly or messy or alienating.” (The Library Book by Susan Orleans, published 2018 Thorndike Press, a Cengage Company, pg. 132 large print edition printed in Mexico)

I found this quote especially powerful because while reading this book my library offered its employees the opportunity to take an online webinar about this very subject entitled “The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness” and it was put together by Ryan Dowd who is the executive directive of a large homeless shelter in Chicago, IL who understands this idea that libraries are a key resources for individuals experiencing homelessness. Ryan has also written a book of the same title that my library has as part of a small professional development collection. In the webinar as well as in his book Ryan discusses such topics as the psychology of voluntary compliance and conflict tools which include both empathy driven and punishment driven tools as well as verbal and non-verbal tools. There are so many wonderful and useful suggestions that Ryan gives as he discusses this vital topic for libraries everywhere, and I just want to share a resource that can be found on his website, www.homelesslibrary.com, and encourage you to visit this website for more suggestions including signing up for weekly tips on this vital library topic.

Top Ten Things Every Library Employee Should Know About Homeless Patrons:

  1. Homeless individuals want to look dangerous: It is really dangerous to be homeless. Homeless individuals get robbed, attacked and raped much more frequently than housed individuals. Consequently, homeless individuals want to look a little dangerous so that bad people won’t want to attack them. Unfortunately, there is no way to look dangerous for would-be robbers, but not also look dangerous to librarians.
  2. The best thing you can do to help is just be nice: Homeless individuals are treated very poorly by most people. They are constantly subjected to harassment and disrespect. Most homeless people are craving to be treated with respect. Believe it or not, the most important thing you can do for homeless patrons is not to help them get a job or get sober. The most important thing you can do is treat them with hospitality and respect.
  3. Homeless people love libraries: Libraries are everything that shelters and streets aren’t: quiet, calm, spacious, safe, police-free… In survey after survey, homeless individuals identify their local library as one of their most important resources.
  4. You only see 10% of homeless people: Only about 10% of homeless individuals are homeless for a year or longer (“chronically homeless”). These individuals are the only ones that fit the stereotypes of homelessness. The other 90% don’t “look” homeless. In fact, you serve a lot of homeless people that you had no idea were homeless.
  5. Homeless people just want to be treated the same: Most homeless individuals are not looking for special treatment. They just want to be treated the same as non-homeless patrons. They especially don’t want to be discriminated against because of the actions of a few troublemakers.
  6. Space is different: When you are homeless, there is not a single place in all of the world where you can go that is truly yours. There is nowhere you can go to be alone that other people can’t intrude upon you. That is why the spaciousness and relative privacy of libraries is so important.
  7. Time is different: When you have to worry about where you will sleep tonight and where you will get your next meal, you don’t worry about anything that happens more than 24 hours from now. The long term horizon becomes irrelevant in the face of surviving today. As a librarian, you might think periodically about retirement. A homeless person rarely thinks about beyond next week.
  8. Possessions are different: When you only own a few things, those few items become very important to you. You don’t want to let them out of your sight for fear that they will be stolen from you or you will lose them. Imagine if everything you owned in the world fit in one bag. Would you ever let that bag out of your sight?
  9. Homelessness is exhausting: Imagine sleeping outside or in a room with 100 other people (with 30 people snoring simultaneously). Imagine skipping meals periodically. Imagine walking everywhere you go. Imagine being worried 24 hours a day about where you will eat and sleep. You would be absolutely exhausted. So are homeless people.
  10. The homeless information network is really efficient and effective: Homeless individuals talk to each other a lot. It is necessary for survival. Word about anything and everything spreads really fast (and relatively accurately) amongst homeless individuals. I guarantee that they talk about which librarians are helpful and which security guards don’t enforce the rules. They also share which library programs are the most beneficial and which parts of the library are the quietest. You can use this to your advantage. Share key messages with a few homeless individuals and it will spread on its own without you telling everyone.

Also, Ryan Dowd is also helping to promote Emilio Estevez’s independent film, “the public”, that deals with this very topic. This film is coming to theaters April 5, 2019.

– Jackie Wood, Marshall Public Library

Fail Forward

We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.

Know Your Audience

My Fail Forward this week is all about knowing your audience. I recently helped our inaugural Drone Club get off the ground, pun intended. The club was intended for kids 8-18, and, being a dutiful novice youth programmer, I thought what better than a slideshow to really get kids interested. Well, our attendees turned out to be mostly between 6 and 10, which is a slight bit young for a PowerPoint. If I accomplished nothing else that day, I helped those kids sleep soundly from sheer boredom. Moral of the story: make sure your message meets your patrons where they’re at.

– Tyler McLane, Coeur d’Alene Public Library

Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!

iNaturalist

Do you have some amateur naturalists in your library? Point them towards www.inaturalist.org. This interactive map allows visitors to see the flora and fauna discovered by people all of the world. Zoom in to find interesting finds in your area, or see pictures of exotic plants and animals from around the world. If you love nature like I do, this is one website you’ll come to again and again!

– Gretchen Perkins, Caldwell School District

SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org

SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-00-18-0013-18). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.