Creating a Person-Centered Library: Best Practices for Supporting High-Needs Patrons

by Elizabeth A. Wahler, Sarah C. Johnson

Overview

Creating a Person-Centered Library provides a comprehensive overview of various services, programs, and collaborations to help libraries serve high-needs patrons as well as strategies for supporting staff working with these individuals.

While public libraries are struggling to address growing numbers of high-needs patrons experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, mental health problems, substance abuse, and poverty-related needs, this book will help librarians build or contribute to library services that will best address patrons' psychosocial needs.

The authors, experienced in both library and social work, begin by providing an overview of patrons' psychosocial needs, structural and societal reasons for the shift in these needs, and how these changes impact libraries and library staff. Chapters focus on best practices for libraries providing person-centered services and share lessons learned, including information about special considerations for certain patron populations that might be served by individual libraries. The book concludes with information about how library organizations can support public library staff.

Librarians and library students who are concerned about both patrons and library staff will find the practical advice in this book invaluable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440880834
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/28/2023
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth A. Wahler is Professor and Director of the School of Social Work at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA, and founder of Beth Wahler Consulting. She has collaborated with libraries and library systems across the United States to conduct assessments of their patrons' psychosocial needs and staff challenges with these types of patron needs; provided training to library staff about trauma-informed librarianship and other approaches to addressing their patrons' needs; and created and piloted various interventions to address patron needs and support library staff. She is recognized internationally for her work on library and social work collaborations.

Sarah C. Johnson, MLIS, LMSW, is adjunct lecturer at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, where she teaches a course on library social work. She is a licensed social worker, and her research focuses on the impact of social work students conducting their field placements at public libraries. Her aim is to foster quality internships by building alliances among students, public librarians, and social work educators, with the goal of enhancing services to library patrons and their wider community.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction

1. Understanding Your Library's Unique Needs
2. Transforming Library Culture
3. Person-Centered Programming and Services for Patrons' Needs
4. Addressing the Needs of Specific Patron Populations
5. Library Collaborations for Addressing Patrons' Needs
6. Organizational Approaches for Best Supporting Staff
7. Anticipating Challenges to Change

Afterword
Suggested Reading
Appendix A. Sample Needs Assessment: Patrons
Appendix B. Sample Needs Assessment: Staff
Appendix C. Sample Needs Assessment: Community
Appendix D. Referral Sheet Template
Appendix E. Sample Behavior Response Guide
Index

Editorial Reviews

What would it take for libraries to truly become places that support everyone who steps into them, including library workers themselves? Creating a Person-Centered Library answers this question in a clear, timely, and usable way. Drawing upon social work principles and practices, Wahler and Johnson guide us through the process of transforming relationships among library staff, with our patrons, and with our potential partners, including social workers themselves. Along the way, they deploy their extensive experience to guide us through challenges that may stand in the way of change, preparing us to clear those hurdles. I recommend this treasure trove of useful information to anyone striving to transform how libraries support both communities and themselves in the trying times in which we find ourselves.” —Noah Lenstra, Associate Professor of Library & Information Science at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA

“A practical and compassionate resource for libraries to support their work with high-needs patrons and the staff who serve them. The right book at the right time for libraries around the world.” —Jane Garner, PhD, School of Information and Communication Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia

“A helpful collection that will inform high-needs patron services, targeted toward public libraries but useful everywhere.” —Library Journal

“In the ever-changing library landscape, Creating a Person-Centered Library, by Wahler and Johnson, shines as an essential compass guiding us through diverse challenges-embracing mental health, housing, and inclusivity. With its clear definitions and proven models, this empowering playbook extends a helping hand to high-needs patrons, transcending urban or rural boundaries. For librarians and advocates seeking to forge inclusive and empathetic havens within their libraries, this book is an absolute must-have guide.” —Chris M. Brown, Commissioner, Chicago Public Library, USA

“This timely and relevant volume provides invaluable guidance to librarians seeking to meet the social needs of their communities and the individuals who make up those communities. It brings together the perspectives of social workers and librarians and benefits from the complementary and reinforcing expertise of those human-centered professions.” —Maria Bonn, Associate Professor and Director, MS Library and Information Science, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA

“I highly recommend that someone from each library read this book.” —Library Life

From the Publisher