Changing How Libraries Respond to Patrons Experiencing Homelessness in Crisis: How Library Social Workers are Perceived to Reduce Reliance on Law Enforcement

ABSTRACT

While early research on library social work has described the broad role of social workers and included some aspects of crisis response, no study has given an in-depth explanation of how social workers are changing libraries’ response to crisis with patrons experiencing homelessness. This embedded multiple-case study across three U.S. urban libraries includes the perspectives of 107 unique participants across six broad roles – patrons experiencing homelessness, library police/security, front-facing staff, social workers, branch managers and chief executive officers. With 46 in-depth Zoom interviews and 91 Qualtrics surveys, this study provides extensive qualitative support that library social workers are perceived to reduce libraries’ reliance on law enforcement to handle crises with patrons experiencing homelessness. Three key themes of how social workers influenced libraries’ responses were found: being an option, running interference and buffering. In addition, a comingled rival was identified: the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis
• de-escalation
• homelessness
• library social work
• Black Lives Matter
• police brutality

Disclosure Statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary A. Provence

Mary A. Provence, PhD is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Social Work at Ball State University and is a Licenced Clinical Social Worker. In her early career, she spent four years as an outreach social worker on the streets of Indianapolis with youth experiencing homelessness. With 31 years of practice across the micro and macro spectrum, Mary is an avid researcher of the emerging field of public library social work as a response to homelessness.