Having seen news articles like this one: ‘Libraries start new chapter to support vulnerable’ , I became interested in the role that public libraries can play in working with vulnerable members of our communities. If Melbourne City Libraries had employed a social worker to help library staff with this role, I thought there must be lessons that can be learned from that experience. After arranging a meeting with Leanne Mitchell at the Melbourne City Library, I was able to talk with her about the project, where it was going and what steps they had taken to evaluate the work they were doing.
We decided then to write a paper that explored the Melbourne experience so other public libraries could learn from these experiences. Once we started writing this article, it became clear that what was missing from the story was some background about social work practice. What do social workers actually do? What are the principles of social work that can be applied to work in libraries? Working at Charles Sturt University we are in the fortunate position to have social work academics working within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. After approaching these academics, two showed an interest in working with me and the Melbourne Libraries to write our paper. Dr Karen Bell and Dr Sabine Wardle became our co-authors and the writing continued. As we came near to completing our writing, we had the opportunity to include some case notes created by Anna Lockwood, the Social Worker at Melbourne Libraries during her work with library visitor. These were a unique testament to the value and impact of the work she was doing, and Anna was keen to join the writing team.
Together Leanne, Karen, Sabine, Anna and I was able to complete a paper that moves beyond the existing literature about social workers in libraries to include data about the work undertaken and the needs of the library users served. Steps for evaluating the program are included, as are recommendations to public libraries who are interested in undertaking similar programs themselves, along with feedback from library staff about the value and benefits to them in having Anna on staff. Perhaps most importantly, for the first time we have an Australian perspective of the relationship between public libraries and social work and the members of our communities who have been helped through the program have been given an opportunity to have their stories told.
The article has now been published in Public Library Quarterly, and an eprint of the article is available at:
Garner, J., Mitchell, L., Bell, K., Lockwood, A & Wardle, S. (2020) Social Work in Australian Public Libraries: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Justice, Public Library Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/01616846.2020.1825917
