Introduction
When I started my research, I only had a vague notion of developing a library program aimed at the homeless youth in the Washington, DC area. I knew that the Martin Luther King Branch of the DC Public Libraries was one of very few public libraries in the US that proactively programs for the homeless.
I contacted Kevin Barbieux, better known as "The Homeless Guy." We corresponded a bit about his use of the public library and what types of programs he would like to see developed. His answer was enlightening for a couple of reasons:
"Unless a person has been through higher education they will not know what all is available to them in the public library. So . . .classes to the general public about all the library resources would be good. But in addition to that, the library needs an exceptional PR/Outreach person to get people interested in such classes. The downtown library here in Nashville has some offerings, but few people show up for them. Libraries could benefit from some good ol fashion marketing.
There are classes here for word and exel, power point etc, but they're only once a day, and for me are inconvenient - they are held in the evening when I'm trying to get into a shelter."
The two points that stood out to me were: librarians need to be proactive in bringing services to the homeless, and they have to be willing to involve the homeless in their planning, in order to catch things, such as, inconvenient scheduling, that might otherwise slip through the cracks.
IThen asked him what type of programs he would like to see at the library - in addition to Word and Excel classes. I made suggestions such s GED classes and classes on finding health information. As before, his answer was extremely helpful:
"A politician can go out and make a speech and it has some impact, but he/she knows that meeting a potential voter face to face, shaking their hand, asking for their vote, and about their concerns, greatly increases the likelyhood of winning that voter's support - his vote, and his endorsement of that candidate to his friends and family. So, I'm thinking that the best way to increase awareness of the library's offerings would be the personal encounter. Have an employee of the library approach the library users, asking for a moment of their time, and ask about their interests, and promote the library. I'm sure most encounters wouldn't last more than a few minutes, although they could develop into longer discussions about the library. Most cable companies offer free time on a channel dedicated to local events. Here we have channel 3, on which a lot of the city council meetings are rebroadcast, etc. I used to think that no one ever watched those channels. But a couple times I have been mentioned on them, and people later have told me about it. So, some commerical time on TV, or some print ads in local papers would also be effective.
On job searches for lower wage employement, I've found the Internet to be lacking. Most legitimate job leads on the internet seem to be professional type jobs.
I would not expect, nor want, a library to offer social services of any kind. Librarians are not social workers. Although they most certainly must be "people" oriented, and be able to understand, communicate with, and assist people of all personality types.
I would think that the library could, though, assist local social service organizations develop the kind of communication necessary that could be easily referenced by library users.
In nashville, metro social services produces a large fold out flyer which lists all the different social services in the area. Possibly, you could contact suzie tolme of nashville metro social services for a pdf file of it, to see what it looks like. Librarians here keep copies of it at all their desks."
Again, the theme of being proactive stood out in the information I was getting. Also, his point about lower wage carrer search help was a very good one. I knew these were two aspects of library programming I would neeed to consider in the deveolpment of my project.
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