Social Work in Libraries Special Issue

The motivation for us to bring together research and the sharing of practice relating to social workers in libraries began with the publication of Social work in Australian public libraries: An interdisciplinary approach to social justice (Garner et al., 2021). This publication took advantage of the presence of schools of both Library and Information Studies and Social Work at Charles Sturt University, and a working relationship with two practitioners at Melbourne City Libraries who were exploring optimal modes of social service delivery as they set up a social work practice within their libraries. The decision to establish this practice by Melbourne City Libraries was in response to the increasing numbers of library visitors with high psycho-social and housing needs. By bringing members of these three parties together, the authors of this paper were able to explore a developing relationship between Australian public libraries and social workers.

Following the publication of Garner et al. (2021), the authors were joined by the other editors of this Special Issue to establish Charles Sturt University as the hub for library social work research. The team saw the benefits of including social work practitioners in Australian libraries and recognised that this relationship was in its infancy in Australia. Despite there being very few examples of library social work in Australia, the practice was well established elsewhere, particularly in the United States of America and Canada. To raise awareness of the possibilities for Australian libraries to include some form of social work practice to assist them in meeting the complex needs of many of their visitors, the Charles Sturt University library social work team hosted a Social Work in Libraries Symposium in 2022. This Symposium was offered free of charge and was promoted across Australia and internationally. Nearly 1,000 people registered to attend the day of presentations.

The Social Work in Libraries Symposium hosted four experts from the United States: Dr Keren Dali from the University of Denver; Professor Beth Wahler who was with the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Patrick Lloyd from the University of Texas at Austin; and Dr Mary Provence from Indiana University. These speakers each presented different aspects of library social work from the practices established in the United States. Australian and New Zealand perspectives were also shared by Anna Lockwood, a Senior Advisor Inclusive Services from Auckland Council; Leanne Mitchell who, at the time, was a Churchill Fellow exploring how local governments can support people experiencing homelessness; Anne-Marie Pfabe and Erin McKeegan from Melbourne City Libraries; and Christine Bolton from Wagga Wagga City Library, each of whom had experience in hiring ongoing social workers or hosting social work students undertaking their professional placements. These presentations were recorded and continue to be regularly accessed via the Charles Sturt University Social Work in Libraries website: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/librarysocialwork.

Following the Symposium, the team at Charles Sturt University recognised the need for more formal sharing of knowledge about the possibilities for libraries to gain support from social workers. Although the level of interest in library social work was high, as evidenced by the large number of registrations from people across the world keen to take part in the Social Work in Libraries Symposium, the number of scholarly papers reporting on the relationship was relatively low. As a step towards increasing publishing opportunities for researchers working in the area, the decision was taken to produce this Special Issue of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association. One of the benefits of choosing this journal is the option of including practice-related writing. We have been very pleased to be able to offer publishing opportunities to practitioners in libraries who are offering the services that our academic authors have been researching.

We start this Special Issue of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association with a paper of our own that is designed to set the scene of existing scholarly publications on the topic of social work in libraries. In Shephard et al. (2023), we provide a scoping review of scholarly research literature relating to social work in libraries. By keeping our search criteria focused on only scholarly literature relating to social work practice in a library setting, we were able to identify just 16 outputs for study, validating our decision to increase publishing opportunities on this topic. Fourteen of the studies were written by authors from the United States, with the remaining papers from Canada and our own paper mentioned earlier in this editorial, Garner et al. (2021), reflecting the maturity of the topic in the United States and the developing interest elsewhere. The papers received for this Special Issue also reflect this pattern, with seven being authored by United States’ writers, two by Australian writers and one by authors in India. The review also found that most scholarly work undertaken on the topic focuses on urban libraries and is often developed from small-scale case studies using qualitative or mixed methods. The review identified opportunities for future research and practice including the challenges and opportunities of the various models of social work practice in libraries, role boundaries between the two professions and a lack of diversity in the geographic source of publications on the topic. We are pleased to present the other papers in this Special Issue that go a small way towards filling these gaps.

Sara Johnson and Elizabeth Wahler’s (2023) paper Anticipating and overcoming common challenges for library and social work collaborations, presents a guide to preparing public libraries and social workers for collaboration and cross-disciplinary partnership. While highlighting the benefits of interdisciplinary partnerships, such as minimising escalating events, patron access to community and health resources, and meeting library staff training needs, the paper presents suggestions for anticipating and responding to the prevalent obstacles for both public librarians and social workers. Through discussing the challenges such as confusion about the social work profession, lack of clarity about the social worker’s role, logistical challenges such as positioning the social worker’s office, feelings of isolation by social workers, and sustainability of the interdisciplinary partnership, Johnson and Wahler present suggestions to overcome these challenges. enabling libraries and social workers to embark on a process of creating and maintaining collaborations with intention and planning. This advice will be helpful in considering the next article, focused specifically on social workers in libraries who support people experiencing homelessness.

Mary Provence, in her paper, Three models of practice: Impacts on the de-escalation role of library social workers during crises with patrons experiencing homelessness (2023b), shares her comprehensive examination of the six different roles of social workers during crises. Provence identifies these as patrons experiencing homelessness, front-facing library staff, library police/security, chief executive officers, branch managers, and social workers. By using an embedded multiple case study approach, Provence identifies and discusses the three models of public library social work practice within urban central libraries in the United States and how these models impact the de-escalation role of social workers during crises with patrons experiencing homelessness, contributing to better outcomes for these patrons. As people experiencing homeless may have also experienced trauma, the next paper, which takes a trauma-informed approach to supporting patrons, is also relevant to serving this vulnerable group.

Mary Provence’s second paper Changing how libraries respond to patrons experiencing homelessness in crisis: How library social workers are perceived to reduce reliance on law enforcement (2023a) explains how library social workers can be perceived to influence library staff responses in reducing reliance on law enforcement, such as policing and security, by working directly with patrons experiencing homelessness and crisis situations and equipping library staff to work with patrons. Provence follows an explanatory, embedded multiple case study design in three urban library branches in the United States. This paper notes the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement on the libraries when reconsidering their approach to having integrated social work programs to reduce reliance on law enforcement. The findings of Provence are particularly relevant to how social work students are educated through placements in libraries, which is the focus of the Research in Practice contribution by Giesler, Johnson and Paauw to be discussed shortly.

Denise Sherreff and Yiping Lou’s article, Librarian and social work identity in an online interprofessional community of practice for Responsive Librarianship training (2023), reports on a study exploring social workers and librarians’ experiences of Responsive Librarianship training through online asynchronous scenario-game-based platform and how this influenced their professional identity as members of a community of practice. Through journalling, the ten participants reflected on the training modules, interactions with other trainees and the scenario-based games related to professional identity. Interviews and surveys at points throughout the training were also conducted, and course documents collected and analysed concurrently. Coding and thematic analysis were undertaken, with concepts of identity defined using the Community of Asynchronous Interprofessional Learning Model (CAIPLM). Results showed that the scenario-game-based platform for training within an interprofessional community of practice merited future exploration and refinement. The authors indicate that the benefits of this process included facilitating discussion and a shared understanding between librarians and social workers that will better support their patrons.

The final research paper for this issue, Elizabeth Wahler’s Trauma-informed librarianship: Guidance for libraries with and without social workers (2023), explores the experience of trauma, both in the lives of library visitors with high psycho-social needs, and in the lives of the library workers who strive to meet those needs as part of their work in libraries. Wahler explores the underpinning approaches to trauma-informed librarianship, and the recognition of the role of trauma in explaining challenging human behaviours. Her paper will be useful in assisting library workers understand the influence of trauma on human behaviour and is a recognition of the often-traumatic nature of library work. Through discussing the six principles of trauma-informed care, Wahler presents options and strategies that can be used by library workers, both with and without the support of a library social worker to meet the needs of their library visitors, while also supporting each other to maintain physical and emotional wellbeing. A trauma-informed approach emphasising empathy and care for patrons may be especially useful for those experiencing homelessness as described above.

A Research in Practice paper by Mark Geisler, Sarah Johnson, and Margaret Ann Paauw, The perceptions of supervisors of library social work interns: Challenges and recommendations (2023), explores social work student placements in libraries from the unique perspective of supervisors. Drawing on qualitative data from participating supervisors as well as existing research, a series of recommendations to enhance the sustainability of social work student placements in libraries is presented. The recommendations promote a holistic approach with relationship-building and proactive measures suggested to generate interest in and to sustain social work in libraries, including careful pre-placement planning, multilateral orientation of all stakeholders, community outreach, and resource development (e.g. guidebooks, protocols, support systems, data collections mechanisms, etc.). The authors highlight both the challenges involved and the unifying principle of community services central to the partnership between both professions and conclude that, despite the challenges involved, most participants were positive about the benefits of hosting social work student placements in their library. Taking a new perspective, the next paper focuses on social work students completing their placement in the library in India.

In their Information in Practice paper, Public Library as a Gateway for Social Work Community Practice: An Information-in-practice from Kerala, India, Abshana Jamal, Dr M.K. Joseph and P. V. Vijesh (2023) offer some insights on social work placements in libraries in Kerala, India, using a model developed by the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences. The authors describe the model’s development as an interdisciplinary initiative involving the College’s Social Work department and the Library and Information Science department. This paper reinforces the importance of the relational approach as the foundation for student placements in libraries. Their experiences also remind us of the careful planning and preparation required to build mutually beneficial partnerships between universities, students, local libraries, and the communities they serve. This idea is exemplified by the Australian practitioners in our next paper.

The final paper for the issue is a Report by Jonathan Stilts, Kelly Makepeace, Amy Rake, Julian Mann and Kay Delahunt which focuses on the valuable work taking place in the northern NSW inland community of Tamworth in their contribution, Building partnerships between the library and social service providers: An opportunity to serve vulnerable communities (2023). Their work is the perfect example of librarians seeing a need (or many needs in this case) in their community and doing whatever possible to address that need. Their ‘Winter Warmers’ program started as an idea to give a hot meal to the increasing number of patrons who were experiencing homelessness and/or sleeping rough. As word spread and the event grew and adapted to the needs of those attending, more and more groups felt comfortable coming into the library and asking for help, including participants with disabilities. These creative and innovative librarians saw an opportunity to do even more and partnered with community service organisations to develop a Community Hub. The inclusive approach to helping their patrons at the point of need has seen the further development of programs for patrons of all ages, including a sensory Storytime and Inclusive STEM program using the library's makerspace, plus coding activities, as well as the goal of being a Dementia friendly space. By choosing to wear a range of hats, the inspiring librarians at Tamworth City Library are better able to serve their community and to respond to their evolving needs.

The contributions in this special issue emphasise the complementary nature of the social work and library disciplines in their focus on addressing the community’s changing needs. These articles reflect a range of approaches for incorporating social work practice into libraries including research studies as well as examples of what social work in libraries looks like in diverse communities in the United States, Australia, and India. In Australia, where social work in libraries is a pioneering concept, we look forward to its continued development and hope that this special issue can inspire more collaboration and projects between these two helping professions.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jane Garner

Jane Garner, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University. She is also a member of the Charles Sturt University Libraries Research Group, the Environmental and Social Justice Research Group, and the Future of the Professions Research Group. She is an elected Standing Committee member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Library Services to People with Special Needs Section. Jane's research and publications focus on the role of books, libraries, reading and information in the lives of people experiencing disadvantage, such as persons deprived of liberty and those experiencing homelessness or poverty.

Monique Shephard

Monique Shephard, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Future of the Professions Research Group at Charles Sturt University. Monique's academic experience spans 10 years across the disciplines of social work, teacher librarianship, English and education. Her PhD from Charles Sturt was interdisciplinary, grounded in knowledge from the social work, English and librarianship disciplines. Monique also has experience in private child and adolescent psychology practice, and in public libraries with a focus on the youth literature collection. Monique is a member of the Libraries Research Group, and the Environmental and Social Justice Group at Charles Sturt. Her current research includes projects on adolescent mental health in schools, environmental practice in social work, disaster resilience, and open access training for doctoral students.

Kasey Garrison

Kasey Garrison, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Librarianship and coordinator of the Children's Librarianship Specialisation at Charles Sturt University. Before becoming an academic, she taught in early childhood and primary schools in the Spanish and special education classroom as well as the school library. Her research interests centre around various topics in school libraries including information literacy, collaboration with public libraries, and social justice and diversity issues in youth literature.

Karen Bell

Karen Bell, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Social Work and co-leader of the Environmental and Social Justice Research Group and the Future of the Professions Research Group at Charles Sturt University. Karen's record of research and publication reflects her interest in the philosophy of social work, post-anthropocentric and critical post humanist theory, gender, and ecosocial work. Many of Karen's publications explore the potential of post-conventional theory in relation to the philosophy of social work, qualitative research, gender, climate change, and interprofessional practice. Karen's current research collaborations include projects on disaster resilience, professional identity, international education, research capacity-building, gender and patriarchy, and interprofessional projects exploring social work in libraries.

Sabine Wardle

Sabine Wardle, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Social Work and Arts at Charles Sturt University. Her research interests and publications focus on ecological social work, environmental sustainability in social work, social work in public libraries and promoting inclusion of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. She is an active member of Charles Sturt University's Library Research Group and Environment and Social Justice Research Group. Sabine's research remains focussed on the theme of social justice, cultural inclusion, embracing diversity and promoting the role of social workers and social work interns in public libraries.