The Public Library as home to society’s outcasts

I had mentioned in a previous post that I’m a big fan of Meredith Farkas.  I’m also a fan of the Library Link of the Day, and reading it is how I usually start my work day (at least after I shuffle through whatever emails require immediate answers).

Earlier this week, the Link of the Day was the article “America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelter.”  I’ve never been homeless myself, but the issues underlying and surrounding homelessness illustrate any number of problems with society that bother me.  My undergraduate years involved a great deal of time in downtown Athens, which (at least while I was there) was “home” any number of chronically homeless individuals.  Considering that the downtown area is a hub of drunken partying, it’s heart-breakingly ironic to see the homeless there as well.

From the article (written by Chip Ward, retired assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library System) :

In bad weather — hot, cold, or wet — most of the homeless have nowhere to go but public places. The local shelters push them out onto the streets at six in the morning and, even when the weather is good, they are already lining up by nine, when the library opens, because they want to sit down and recover from the chilly dawn or use the restrooms. Fast-food restaurants, hotel lobbies, office foyers, shopping malls, and other privately owned businesses and properties do not tolerate their presence for long. Public libraries, on the other hand, are open and accessible, tolerant, even inviting and entertaining places for them to seek refuge from a world that will not abide their often disheveled and odorous presentation, their odd and sometimes obnoxious behaviors, and the awkward challenges they present to those who encounter them.

Ward continues, pointing out an important and often ignored reality of homelessness:

The term “chronically homeless” is also inadequate when it comes to describing these individuals — it only tells you that their homeless state is frequent. It neither indicates why they are homeless and stay that way, nor says anything about their most salient characteristic: Most of them are mentally ill.

The library where I work doesn’t quite have the same challenges with homelessness or mental illness as the SCPL.  With my corner of the county being quite suburban, it would be difficult (if not impossible) for a homeless person to survive.  I’ve always admired the opportunity that our truly urban areas present (and that’s part of the reason I’ve always wanted to live in a more urban area), but I’m often dismayed at the sociopolitical breakdowns that our cities foster.

My library does, however, receive semi-regular visits from a home for the mentally ill and the mentally retarded.  I do not know much about mental illness or mental retardation, but I believe that the residents of the home face any number of challenges ranging from autism to Down’s Syndrome. When I taught high school, my classroom was next door to a special education classroom, and I tried to glean whatever helpful knowledge from the teacher that I could.  And fortunately, she was more than glad to discuss her students and her teaching strategies (paying careful attention to any concerns about confidentiality, of course).  One of the the aspects of her teaching that I found most interesting involved regular trips to certain places within the community (sometimes stores, sometimes the mall, sometimes more unique places).  It was basically intended to give the students some exposure to the “real world” that they might otherwise never experience, even if that exposure occurs within the boundaries of (for lack of a better term) a field trip.

I could be wrong, but I am fairly certain that the individuals who visit our library are here for similar reasons.  Sometimes they are unaware of loud their voices are, some of them will ask you seemingly endless questions about where to find certain materials, some are profoundly quiet and unreachable.

But the real challenge poses itself when other customers raise concerns — and then I just remind myself (and sometimes the customer) that the library is a public place and it’s open to anyone who wants to use its resources and facilities. As long as a customer – any customer — uses the library in an appropriate and reasonable way, there’s nothing that I can do about it.  And that’s one of the really wonderful things about the public library as an open, human institution.

Thankfully, I’ve only had to deal with these irritated customers a couple times.  And we’re also fortunate, I suppose, that the customers from the home visit during our low-traffic times in the mid-morning.

I believe that most of these people (the ones who visit my library, as well as the ones described in Wards article) are probably good at heart — they’ve just been given a tough break in life (whether they are homeless, mentally ill, mentally retarded, dealing with addiction, or some combination thereof), and I hate that.

In the meantime, check out the Feel-good Librarian — her blog usually helps me find some perspective about these kinds of things.