Menu:
On-The-Job Social Worker Skills
by Sophie Brookover
Library school does not prepare us for many of the situations that arise in real-world library practice, particularly when we are faced with patrons who need assistance beyond the basic level of finding and providing books and magazine articles on the subject of their interest. However, the social work aspects of librarianship can often be found in the skills we learn in reference classes. What follows are two anecdotes based on my experiences working in the children's department of a large regional branch library, some dos and don'ts, and a handful of suggestions for continuing education in this area.
Anecdotes
I have two regulars who require some social worker skills to help them effectively. The first is Constance, a developmentally delayed adult who comes to the library weekly. Constance hews to a specific range of subjects, which she cycles through every six to eight weeks. During each visit, she asks for books on subjects like African-American female police officers, African-American female Harley Davidson motorcycle riders, African-American female fighter pilots, and so on.
My first few encounters with Constance were frustrating, because I underestimated both her intelligence and her tenacity. When Constance requested a book about African-American female police officers, she was not satisfied with a picture book depicting police officers in general, such as Officer Buckle and Gloria. Through trial and error, I learned that Constance doesn't want stories about her interests; she wants nonfiction titles, written at an elementary grade level, especially ones that are lavishly illustrated with photographs, not drawn illustrations. Now, Constance knows that I can help her find what she's looking for, or help her refine her search in the event that she makes a request I could never fulfill (such as her interest in what she called "African-American hillbilly biker dancing"), I can at least help her find a few pictures online of something close to the interest she describes.
The second patron, Faduma, is an immigrant mother of two. She brings her children to the library every other week. Faduma has lived in the United States for about ten years and her English is excellent, but she married as a teenager and never finished high school. She wants to go to college and "make something of her life," as she puts it, but is hampered by a lack of understanding of how to access the American higher education system, and by her need to provide appropriate care for her school-aged children.
During each visit, Faduma returns to the children's desk, looking for information about GED programs, ESL programs (although her spoken English is fluent, Faduma is insecure about her writing skills), and after-school daycare programs for her children. Rather than building on the information we provided for her on previous visits, my colleagues and I have found that we must provide the same information during each visit, performing the same searches and explaining the same results. This could be frustrating. Based on what Faduma has told me about her busy home life, though, I have learned she's not quite ready to act on the information she is collecting - but that she will when the time is right. More than anything else, Faduma comes to us for reassurance that higher education here is a viable goal for her.
Dos & Don'ts
Do: Listen carefully.Don't: Make assumptions. It was insulting for me to assume that just because Constance is a developmentally-delayed adult, she would be happy with picture books written for children on her subject areas of interest. When I took the time to conduct a proper reference interview with her, the way I would with a child at her reading level (somewhere between first and third grade), I learned that she wanted informational books, and was able to provide them. Result: a happy patron with a satisfied informational need.
Do: Be ready and willing to provide the same information to the same patron multiple times.
Don't: Be impatient. Not all people are ready to act immediately on information they request. They may only be ready to ask for it, and we need to be ready to provide it when asked.
How Can We be Better Prepared to Serve Our Public?
Some suggestions that may be more practical than insisting that every ALA-accredited LIS program offer courses cross-listed with social work:
- Request that your regional library cooperatives or other
continuing education provider recruit practicing social workers to
offer workshops on how to incorporate social work skills into public
library work.
- Contact your municipal, county, and state Health & Human Services
(HHS) division and ask if someone from their office can present some
training at your library.
- Request that the HHS division send your library some basic materials - flyers about classes they may offer, services they provide, and a list of office divisions and phone numbers your patrons are likely to find useful. Passing this useful information along to your patrons provides a crucial inter-agency liaison function to the public.
Sophie Brookover is a Senior Children's & Teen Librarian at the Vogelson Regional Branch Library of the Camden County (NJ) Library System in Voorhees, NJ. She spends quite a bit of time thinking and writing about the intersections of librarianship and social work, librarianship and teaching, and most of all, librarianship and popular culture, as examined at her professional blog, Pop Goes The Library.