Article Annotations: Background & Rants

Ayers, S. (2006). The Poor and Homeless: An Opportunity for Libraries to Serve. The Southeastern Librarian. vol. 54, no.1, pp.66-74.Retrieved October 11th, from Library Literature Fulltext http://www.emporia.edu/libsv/databases/
Ayers cites a couple of authoritative sources, such as the National Coalition for the Homeless and the Urban Institute, for statistics. One percent of the population of the United States experiences homelessness each year. That makes it what, 3 million? That’s horrible! She suggests a list of inexpensive things libraries can do to assist the poor and homeless, including job search & career guidance, providing regional guides, newspapers, community information and referral services.
Berman, S. (2005). Classism in the stacks: libraries and poverty. Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture. Retrieved October 29th, 2006 from http://www.ala.org/ala/olos/outreachresource/servicespoor.htm

A visit to the ALA’s Outreach page yields a lot of material. This is Sanford Berman’s impassioned plea to treat the homeless and impoverished as real patrons, and not to keep instituting policies which are designed to keep them out (e.g. patron-codes-of- behavior which say body odor may be considered disruptive; or others that say that bathing is not allowed in the bathrooms). Berman uses Kansas City, Missouri’s new Central Library as an example, citing Lewis Diuguid’s column back in 2004.

Hersberger, J. (1999). The Homeless, Public Libraries and Outreach Services. North Carolina Libraries, vol. 57, no.1, pp 8-12. Retrieved October 14th, 2006 from Library Literature Fulltext. http://www.emporia.edu/libsv/databases/ Pages cited will be from electronic copy.
Gives a brief history of homelessness and notes homeless people also use academic libraries. Hersberger suggests that outreach services be employed to provide service, but not to exclude the homeless from actually coming in to the library. The author encourages her readers: librarians and LIS students to use the word “challenge” instead of “problem” when referring to helping the homeless.

Shen, L. (2002). The Dilemma of Urban Library Service for the Homeless.Current Studies in Librarianship, v. 26, no 1/2 Retrieved October 14, 2006 from Library Literature Fulltext. http://www.emporia.edu/libsv/databases/
Shen discusses the types of service to the homeless: outreach, partnership with community organizations and in-house. Although many libraries enact policies can be barriers for the homeless, it is possible to provide services to them.