IST 560: Library Advocacy Group

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.

Whether it's navigating a crisis or witnessing a community member struggling with tough times, coming face to face with trauma and adversity can be uncomfortable. But in striving to learn more about challenging behaviors, and how we can better interact with library patrons and our coworkers, we can come to see that people are complex and not simply "problems." This workbook from the PLA Social Worker Task Force (SWTF) provides a collection of powerful tools to add to your customer service toolbox. It's filled with prompts, exercises, and best practices that shed light on how trauma can affect people, helping you build confidence in your ability to support your library's patrons. You will   delve into what trauma is and how it impacts library work; be introduced to a framework for utilizing a trauma-informed lens in your interactions; practice exercises to spur personal reflection on common concerns bound up with library work and the policies relating to these issues; and gain hand-on tools and techniques, including strategies for de-escalation and guidance on the impacts of involving law-enforcement and banning patrons.   You will also explore various scenarios which provide the opportunity to integrate what you've learned and practice responding through a trauma-informed lens, including   Mental Health Challenges Sleeping at the Library Strong Personal Odor Personal Belongings Suspected Intoxication/Under the Influence Substance Use Threatening Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior Unsheltered Teens Adult Self-Neglect Child Abuse or Assault Solicitation or Panhandling Stealing Child Unattended After Closing

Spend a day with social workers in 62 different settings, and learn about the many career paths available to you. Did you ever wish you could tag along with a professional in your chosen field, just for a day? DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS allows you to take a firsthand, close-up look at the real-life days of 62 professional social workers as they share their stories. Join them on their journeys, and learn about the rewards and challenges they face. This book is an essential guide for anyone who wants an inside look at the social work profession. Whether you are a social work graduate student or undergraduate student, an experienced professional wishing to make a change in career direction, or just thinking about going into the field, you will learn valuable lessons from the experiences described in DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS. The 5th edition includes updates throughout, as well as new chapters on police social work, library social work, suicide prevention/intervention, anti-trafficking, social work and the opioid crisis, legislative social work, adoption social work, social work education, and arts-based social work. From the Foreword: The more I thought about the book and what it contributes, I realized that it paints a "word picture" of what social work is as a profession. This is not an easy thing to do, given how multifaceted social work is and given the many settings in which it is practiced. This book presents the mosaic that is social work--a mosaic of multiple "tiles" held together with the core values of service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, the importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence, all applied "within the context and the complexity of the human experience," as stated in the NASW Code of Ethics. -Kathryn Conley Wehrmann, Ph.D., LCSW, President, NASW From the Introduction: My hope is that you will use this book as a starting point--an introduction to the variety of roles social workers play every day. Use it as you would the opportunity to literally follow and observe 62 different social workers for a day. Soak up as much as you can from each experience, decide what you would like to explore further, and then take it from there -Linda May Grobman, MSW, LSW, ACSW