Most people who enter the library need assistance, and sometimes it’s not just a matter of an easily answered question.
Will Van Sant of the Tampa Bay Times reminds us that the current economy has created additional duties for this new brand of librarian…librarian-cum-social worker. He calls them ‘the heros of the recession’.
Van Sant says: “Take mild-mannered David Stoner. Trained to help adults discover the trial of Socrates and sixth graders track the Oregon Trail, he now spends half his time in the trenches of a battered economy. There his job is far more urgent: helping people who need jobs, food stamps or Medicaid.
“These days, it’s really social work in some respects,” said Stoner, who directs adult services for the Clearwater Public Library System. “And it’s really satisfying to see how much you are helping.
Karen Prall has been a Clearwater library regular since September, when she lost her dental assistant job. She doesn’t like going to WorkNet Pinellas, a nonprofit workforce development agency. She said staff there are overworked, disorganized and dismissive.
When she visited the library on a recent Friday afternoon, Stoner swiftly had Prall, who has limited computer experience, posting her resume to the Web.
“The library is really the only place you can go to get direct help immediately,” said Prall, 39. “You ask them and they don’t say, ‘I’ll be with you in 20 minutes.’ They’ll come over and help you right away.”
I am a Librarian/Social Worker
I actually have my masters in social work and library science and I too believe the two fields to be related. Social work is a helping profession and in many ways so is librarianship. For whatever reason “clients” of both professions need assistance and the librarian and social worker are there to provide it. As a librarian, I’ve found myself on numerous occasions calling upon my knowledge of human behavior and interpersonal interaction and communication, much of which I received from my social work training, to help me in dealing with library patrons. While earning my masters of social work I worked at a public library, and it was there that I realized I really wanted to be a librarian. Having earned my MLS since then and working in libraries for over 5 years now, I’m happy to say that I use both my masters degrees everyday. Because in the end, I believe both professions to be about people.