Identifying community needs is crucial in a crisis. Participants proposed some recommendations in this next stage of the COVID-19 Reimagining Youth Librarianship project.
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COVID-19 was declared a national emergency in March, and libraries closed their buildings within a few weeks of the outbreak. To maintain service to the community, they pivoted to virtual. Now, four months into this pandemic, libraries have partially reopened buildings, primarily focusing service on low-hanging fruit by reformatting traditional offerings.
These reformatted services include providing curbside pick-ups and grab-and-go services, boosting Wi-Fi access, virtualizing some existing services (such as story time), and leveraging comfortable partnerships (such as those with schools).
Along with the pandemic, the country continues to grapple with systemic racism.
We have to ask, are these reformatted services what youth and families need right now? Through our work with more than 150 library staff participating in the COVID-19 Reimagining Youth Librarianship project, we found that the answer is a resounding “no.” We are aware that we are making a generalization based on our interaction with the 150 library staff that are directly working with us. We acknowledge that there are indeed public library staff who have been working tirelessly to determine and fulfill the exacerbated needs of their communities. If you believe your work does not fit our generalization and would like to share your experiences and knowledge with us, please contact us (mmsubram@umd.edu, lbraun@leonline.com).
Read: COVID-19 Is an Opportunity to Rethink Youth Librarianship | Reimagining Libraries
Identifying evolving community needs is crucial in a crisis and library staff must recognize this. Through the project, we learned that participants lack:
Over the past month, as a part of our co-design process, we explored the question: What are the exacerbated challenges that youth and families face during crises such as those we are now experiencing? Library staff working with us interviewed community connectors around the United States. Participants included youth activists, teen and family advocates, a LQBTQ community housing coordinator, university and state community engagement personnel, local business executives, a nutrition educator, a physician, a councilwoman, and nonprofit managers. Through these conversations, some critical challenges to communities emerged.
These are listed below in no specific order. Related questions should be addressed in order for libraries to be truly relevant to their communities during times of emergency.
Growing insecurities. Many youth and families, in particular minoritized families, are under stress and face insecurities about finances, employment, schooling, housing, health, racism, and food and nutrition. As one staff notes, “Having [an] internet connection is an issue, …but having food, clothing and employed parents are even bigger issues."
How can public libraries leverage community assets to understand crisis-specific insecurities and design community-based solutions with and for youth and families?
Supporting formal (online or hybrid) learning. We are fortunate to live in an age when distance learning is possible. Yet distance learning requires teacher and family support. “[P]arents may be illiterate, do not speak English, or have to work outside the home and are not available during school-day hours,” says Gloria Blackwell, director of community engagement at the University of Maryland. Similarly, even if a device is provided by a school, access may be limited because the whole family needs to use that one device.
Given the evolving nature of K–12 learning, do public library staff have the skills and connections to support formal learning? How do library staff harness connected learning programs and services to support student learning outcomes?
Making the invisible visible. As public library staff work to provide services during the pandemic, it’s easy to focus on the needs of those are most vocal and traditional library users. “If I have not established a relationship with the people in the community,” says Jennifer Johnson, Teen Forum manager at the Martin Library in York, PA. “Then I shouldn't be surprised if people do not turn to the library during a time of crisis.”
How do libraries connect with community assets to seek out those who have no voice and no advocates, such as people who are homeless, struggling with mental health conditions, or lacking food, and discover what community organizations (including libraries) can do for them?
Read: "Retire Those Legacy Approaches. It’s Time to Be Bold and Innovative. | Reimagining Libraries"
Strategic capacity building. Collective impact benefits all communities. A strategic effort among community partners can coordinate resources and leverage the strengths and goals of participating organizations. Public libraries often expect partners to come to them or they go to partners and “sell” what the library can do for them. “I really like the idea about knowing your partners rather than making them learn about you,” says Juan Rubio, digital media and learning program manager at Seattle Public Library.
In order to successfully support youth and families during times of crisis, how can library administrators and staff strategize and plan with their communities not as a way to “sell” library services but as a way to make sure youth and families have what they need to survive and succeed? How can we move from transactional relationships to partnerships that are symbiotic?
Supporting youth employment. Over the past decade, many communities have worked to provide employment opportunities to youth. The pandemic creates challenges as youth may find it difficult to find jobs that they can perform completely online. Jobs that require a physical presence (cashier, waiter, etc.) present a high COVID-19 risk. Resources for employment range from resume writing support to social-emotional development that empowers youth to land a job and then perform well on the job—even when it’s virtual.
What are the services youth in your community need to gain employment and develop future job skills, and how can the library help fill those needs?
Encouraging activism. Young people want to help overcome racial injustice, police brutality, domestic violence, and oppression.
Given that library staff are predominantly white and not diverse, how do these staff work with minoritized youth to assure they are able to provide wide-ranging support towards reducing injustice and systemic racism?
Accessing accurate health information. Pervasive misinformation regarding health has substantial consequences for minoritized and low-income youth. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, highlights the librarian’s role in a recent interview. “[P]eople are wondering, where's this information coming from? Who's generating it? And so that's what librarians are trained to do, to look at how the information is being produced and who's producing it.”
So, how can libraries support just-in-time health information needs? What models of information delivery can libraries employ to get pertinent information to youth and who can serve as information intermediaries?
Read: "Reenvisioning Libraries. There's a Project for That. | From the Editor"
COVID-19 cases are soaring in the United States, and racial tensions are acute. The above challenges are ongoing—youth and their families are struggling with decisions about schooling, housing, employment, child care, health, racism, and more. In such moments, we implore the library community to:
If library staff do not step up to help youth and families with these critical needs, their significance to the community will surely be lost. This is a crossroads moment: Library administrators must revise policies and structures to enable and empower staff to be agile and flexible.
Our design work is not yet done. In the weeks to come, we will continue to work with library staff to engage in a process of taking what they’ve learned about their community and transition that into responsible and responsive actions for serving youth and families during crisis times. Stay tuned.
Dr. Mega Subramaniam is an associate professor at the College of Information Studies, University of Maryland. Linda W. Braun is a learning consultant for LEO.
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I'm taking some major issues with the title of this article as well as the implication that Curbside services, something that most libraries had no experience providing was "low hanging fruit." We are dealing with a pandemic with unprecedented outcomes. I appreciate the study and what it is trying to do, but to categorize libraries (libraries!?!?!) as being out of touch is not the experience I've had as a library director. In fact, I would argue that most libraries, who by the way know the impact of our services on our communities, adapted quickly and with useful solutions. The rhetoric used in this article is not helpful in an industry that is dedicated to the public, continues to be dedicated to the public and is dealing with budget cuts, layoffs and for some communities complete closures of their libraries. Maybe it's time this publication "wakes up" to the issues that are facing public librarians today.
I absolutely agree with your non-low-hanging-fruit ideas, but the title of your article makes it sound like curbside service is a bad thing, which it is not. I don’t understand how the two-loftier goals about the community at large and curbside service-are mutually exclusive. It’s a little offensive to call any service where librarians are developing completely new systems to serve our patrons-whether the goals are lofty or not-“low hanging fruit.”
Your article highlights the increasing need for public and school libraries to have regular, ongoing communication.
Excellent points. I’ve often thought that entering library buildings is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome. Being outside looking in along with potential library users has given the library world a new opportunity to view services and practices from a much-needed lens. Operating within the community can bring a rousing wake up call.
what specific programs would you suggest?
Mr. Heideman
We can open casinos, nail salons, bars, massage parlors, etc., all as essential services. Why are libraries and bookstores not available? Those seem to be much more essential services in this weird Covid time!
I find the concept of "patron needs" to be troublesome. I have spent many years in the profession and I find few people who use libraries are able to articulate a need that is not a related to an information source (book, magazine, web-site) etc. I am doubtful for this reason when a person claims to have identified a person's library needs. Often I believe we "recognize" a need because it resonates with the researchers presuppositions about the values of libraries, rather than being a true need articulated by an individual.
Also not addressed is the question of the scope of librarianship. How does a researcher determine the appropriate scope of a library.
Hm.. I am wondering when this survey was conducted, and if thoughts have changed as the pandemic goes on. I know my view on library services has been challenged and changed a lot since even June.
What I'm seeing is that libraries in my region are 1) building services from the ground up in a brand new way, 2) responding to community needs including curbside service, lunch site book distribution, and yes, virtual programming, and 3) planning, working on, and launching projects that address the crucial needs listed above. That is a TON, no doubt. Juggling several priorities at once, and addressing the needs of many populations, is something that libraries can do and continue to do.
I absolutely hate this article. It feels like the author is criticizing librarians for not doing more, when we are already doing as much as we can with unknown situations and limited financial resources. We do our best and many go way above and beyond, but we are not social workers to handle all the ills of society. We are librarians - strong, informed, compassionate, helpful, and dedicated. Just my 2 cents.
I just what to read some good books and fun and interesting books as well because I Love To Read books.
For anonymity purposes, I must use an assumed name to comment. Excuse my forthright language but this article is utter BS. The die was cast before any of the responses were received. Our patrons, including and ESPECIALLY youth and families are overjoyed with our curbside pickup service, and to deny the reality of this is simply wagging the dog to promote truthiness that simply does not exist. I am surprised that two leading lights in the field have pushed their agenda so strongly as to deceive readers of School Library Journal.
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