Superior Public Library: Social Work Intern
Superior Public Library hired a part-time Social Work Intern through UW-Superior in January of 2022. This is the information they shared with us about their position and experience as a library social worker. Response dated June 2022.
What is your library?
Superior Public Library
What is your title?
Social Work Intern
How long have you been in your current position?
Since January 2022 [5 months]
Please describe your educational background or training
I will be graduating from UW-Superior in August of 2022 with my bachelor’s in social work. I also have my associate degree in Gerontology.
Is your position full or part-time? If part-time, how many hours/week are you scheduled?
I am part-time, 18-20 hours per week
Please describe your main responsibilities.
My main responsibilities are to start connecting the library with resources in the community, research, and start creating a resource guide and resource bulletin board.
What are you hoping your role will do in your library and your community?
I’m hoping that my role in the library will build better connections for the library to community resources, the staff will be better informed about resources, that my projects will be sustainable, and the patrons will be able to find resources either through the staff or through information posted.
How do you make decisions when interacting with a patron exhibiting psycho-social needs in the library?
I haven’t had to make decisions with patrons exhibiting psycho-social needs.
What resources do you rely on to support your work?
Other staff members, community members, online resource guides, our policies, articles/books on social work in the library, presentations from prior classes
Were there pre-existing protocols or documentation the library had in practice for handling psycho-social community needs prior to your hire?
I don’t think there are protocols the library had in place for handling psycho-social community needs. Staff just takes it as it comes and tries to handle it the best they can. If it’s out of their comfort level, they usually hand it off to a manager.
Do you staff a public service desk? If yes, how many hours on average per week?
No, but I do help fill in desk shifts a few hours per week
Have you established protocols for other librarians on duty to follow, particularly when you are not on the desk?
No, I have not.
Do you assist with staff training, if so how often?
I do assist with staff training whenever there is training available
Please describe the reporting or documentation protocols you follow when handling a patron interaction. What pieces of information are you tracking (demographics, referral sources, etc)?
I do not report/document patron interaction because I don’t have office hours.
Please estimate the percentage of interactions you have with patrons that are first-time, and what percentage are repeat customers?
I would say that most interactions are first-time.
What are you measuring to indicate success?
If resources are given out/used, that means it’s useful. This to me is successful with my projects.
What community partnerships are most valuable to you as a library social worker? How do cultivate those partnerships?
The homeless shelters, mental health groups, older adult organizations. We are cultivating those partnerships by staying in touch, providing them advertisement, learning about their services, and much more. We want to continue building support in our community.
On a scale of 1 through 5, where 1 is Disagree Strongly and 5 is Agree Strongly, please indicate your level of agreement with this sentence: “Our community has adequate resources for community members with psycho-social or other social service needs.”
3 – Neither Agree nor Disagree
From the following list, what are the top 3-5 needs or populations you are seeing presented in the library?
List: Unhoused or unsheltered needs; Food insecurity; Mental health needs; Job seekers; Aging population; Drug/substance abuse; Other
Unhoused or unsheltered needs, Mental health needs, Drug/substance abuse
If you would like, you can expand on your responses to the previous two questions here.
There are many resources in our community, but I believe that people don’t know how to access them or are too embarrassed to ask for them. If we can shed more light onto the resources that help the populations I’ve shared above, I do believe there will be some change for the patrons.
What advice might you give a library that is considering hiring a social worker?
Make sure your staff knows that librarians aren’t social workers and that we’re not asking you to be. Buy-in is so important for changes like this. Also, have some sort of plan, no matter how broad it is. It can be overwhelming if the library doesn’t know what it wants.
If a library is unable to hire a social worker, what are the top skills or qualities you would recommend a library staff member possess in order to handle psycho-social needs in the library?
Some qualities would be empathetic, good communication skills, and a problem-solver. I would also recommend more training on trauma-informed care training and to watch Ryan Dowd’s trainings.
Is there anything we didn’t ask that you’d like to share?
No, thank you