Beth Wahler
Associate ProfessorPublic Library and Social Work Partnerships to Address Patrons' Psychosocial Needs
As temperature-controlled public spaces with restrooms, computers, and free internet access, public libraries across the United States have found themselves front and center in the service of patrons experiencing poverty and/or homelessness (Provence, 2018). Many progressive libraries have begun collaborating with social workers to innovate programs that best serve the local library patrons' needs. I collaborate with public libraries across Indiana and the United States to conduct needs assessments of patrons' psychosocial needs and the libraries' abilities to meet those needs and then partner with the libraries to develop social work partnerships to better address patrons' needs. My work in this area began with the Indianapolis Public Library, where I conducted a two-part needs assessment of patron psychosocial needs, then used evidence from that needs assessment to inform and pilot an MSW student practicum unit. More data were gathered during the piloted practicum unit which has informed the Indianapolis Public Library's attempts to justify hiring an on-staff social worker. The library has been able to successfully justify the need based on the data gathered, and has received approval to hire a social worker and have an ongoing student practicum unit at the library. In addition, library staff and I have co-presented on our project at two Indiana Library Federation statewide conferences to inform attempts by other libraries to do similar projects, and a PhD student and I have co-presented at a national social work conference. We have also published multiple articles on our work. The dissemination of the IPL partnership has led to work with multiple other public library systems across Indiana and the U.S including the Monroe County library in Bloomington, Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Appleton Public Library in Wisconsin, and Morgantown Public Library in West Virginia. For all of these individual library systems, I am conducting individualized needs assessments, individualizing recommendations for the specific library systems' needs, and then collaborating with local social work education programs to plan practicum placements as a way to begin addressing patrons' psychosocial needs.