1. With Respect & Dignity:
Serving Homeless People in Library Communities
Prepared by Michael Santangelo
Chair, Subcommittee on Library Services to the Poor and Homeless
Office for Literacy and Outreach Services
ALA Annual Conference
Chicago, Illinois
July 12, 2009

2. About OLOS Office for Literary and Outreach Services Adult Literacy
Bookmobiles
Services to Older Adults
Services to People with Disabilities
Services to Poor and Homeless People
Services to Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries

3. OLOS Advisory Committee
Subcommittees
Subcommittee on Bookmobiles
Subcommittee on Library Services to Native Americans
Subcommittee on Library Services to the Poor and Homeless
Subcommittee on Older Adults
Subcommittee on Dr. Jean E. Coleman Lecture
Subcommittee on the Diversity and Outreach Fair

4. What are our goals?

6. Listening

7. Sharing

8. Responding

9. How do we do that?

10. Listservs

11. Conference Programs

12. Toolkits

13. OLOS Toolkits The American Dream Starts @ your library Toolkit
The Librarian's Guide to Gaming
Mobile Services Handbook
Non-English Speakers
Older Adults (Working Doc, final doc to be launched Winter 08)
Rural and Small Libraries (The Small but Powerful Guide for Winning Big Support for Your Rural Library)
Rural and Small Libraries Online Toolkit (The Small Is Powerful Online Toolkit for Winning Support for Your Rural Library)
Tribal Libraries
TRAILS - Tribal Library Procedure Manual 3rd Edition 2008

15. Newest Toolkit: Getting Started is the First Step:
Serving people who are homeless in the library

16. Philosophies Behind This Toolkit
No one has all the answers
No one else can be expert on the situation that you are encountering
Suggestions not dictates
Learning from each other
Best Practices
From other Toolkits and Manual

17. Building up from success and failure
Localization is best
Community: Street, Town, County, State
Your library, your coworkers, your users
Building up from success and failure
Successes and mistakes are equally effective learning experiences
What works and what does not is different for each library.

18. Democratic Spirit We all need to be in this together
Across this nation
Across this profession
Across our institutions

20. Some steps to get people started
Take a breath
Open your mind
Get the stats
Research policy
Look outside
Read
Discuss
Document

21. Some steps continued
Don’t worry
Congratulate yourself

22. Reference (Preventative Librarianship)
Local Social Services
Community Awareness
Timely Programming
User training

23. Staff Awareness and Training
Sharing
Local awareness
Inclusiveness
Knowledge of Library Policies
Knowledge of ALA policies, state library associations’ policies

24. Talking to your supervisor
Be Prepared
Bring those stats
Get others on your side
Present best practices
Relate to your library’s mission statement
Those ALA documents
This is not charity.

25. Best Practices Conferences and webinars Library literature
American Libraries
Library Journal
Library Lit Database
Listservs, wikis, facebook
Join a group/Start a group

26. Library Services to Youth
Creating a welcoming atmosphere
Library cards
Programming
Outreach

27. Community Partnerships
Identifying partners
Approaching potential partners
Preparing for partnerships
Maintaining partnerships

28. Programming
Outreach
Promotion/Marketing

29. Be Part of the Count
Department of Housing and Urban Development sponsored program
Helps to identify the number of people experiencing homelessness in a specific area
Accurate counts can help the library
Offer meeting room space to organizers

30. Street Newspapers and Blogs
Subscribing or finding them
Using them to create better services and programs
Clearer picture of the local situation: harassment issues, institutional issues, etc.
Libraries as silent partners for street newspapers and blogs

32. Seeking Input As part of outreach
Needs assessment from the impacted community.
Helps to create a bigger buy in.

33. Difficult Situations
Staff awareness and knowledge of local library’s policies
Equal application of policies to all users regardless of socioeconomic status.
Remembering not to dwell on stereotypes

34. Additional Material Resources National Contacts
ALA Policy 61. Library Services for the Poor

36. Brooklyn Public Library
Contact Information:
Michael Santangelo
Brooklyn Public Library