L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library: Community Resource Specialist
L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire hired a full-time social worker in 2019—Wisconsin’s first library social worker—as part of a strategic initiative by the city. This is the information they shared with us about their position and experience as a library social worker. Response dated June 2022.
Learn more about social work at L.E. Phillips on their website.
What is your library?
L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library – Eau Claire
What is your title?
Community Resource Specialist
How long have you been in your current position?
3+ years
Please describe your educational background or training
Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work – Mental Health Emphasis
Is your position full or part-time? If part-time, how many hours/week are you scheduled?
Full Time
Please describe your main responsibilities.
Meeting with clients who need community resource referrals and warm handoffs to those referrals, i.e. calling other providers with client to set up appointments or inquire about services, work with client while they complete applications for resources over the phone or computer, etc. Help inform staff of best practices when addressing behaviors and conflict in the library, and be a resource to staff for customer engagement. Provide resources and tools for staff for their work and for the benefit of customers, i.e. provide resources and information to staff for common questions. Collaborate with community partners on common goals to address systemic issues in the community that are creating barriers for clients.
What are you hoping your role will do in your library and your community?
Break down barriers to accessing resources and provide a low barrier solution to resource access. Overall, hopefully, shorten the length of time that it takes for people to get to the services they need to find stability or answers.
How do you make decisions when interacting with a patron exhibiting psycho-social needs in the library?
All clients have varying psycho-social needs. From anxiety to depression, self-care needs, loss of people or relationships, loneliness, etc. There is some kind of a deficit that caused this individual to need my services or to walk into the library. I treat each person as an individual, with a different background and needs. I’m curious. I listen to their words, body language, energy, and emotions that they exhibit. I work to be as consistent as possible for customers so that they know what to expect around me. For higher SPMI concerns I keep space, and keep calm and quiet and attempt to use mirroring to my advantage. I will often ask people if they would like to talk in my office or outside. For many clients, a quick walk is what they need to re-regulate.
What resources do you rely on to support your work?
My incredible library coworkers. They are the eyes and ears, helping to provide referrals and bridge the gap for clients to get to my services. I have built connections with various housing, food, clothing, job, etc. agencies in my community so they are familiar with my services and how we can work together. Through that I find and learn about various community resources and we share information, resource sheets, paperwork, etc. to help clients. I work closely with the city to inform them of barriers in the city, I have been able to help support the start-up of programs through this partnership such as obtaining free bus passes for individuals experiencing homelessness. Connections are my primary resource. For physical resources: lots of paper—housing packets and resource sheets primarily, I give out backpacks, water bottles, hand warmers, socks, hygiene kits, and more.
Were there pre-existing protocols or documentation the library had in practice for handling psycho-social community needs prior to your hire?
The library has had an Appropriate Library Behavior Policy that I modified and a banning procedure that I am working on modifying with a team of library staff. Library staff went through a Mental Health First Aid training that assisted in helping some individuals in crisis, but library staff still were dependent upon contacting the police for high needs situations. Library staff knew of some resources and attempted to provide resources for people by providing a few resource referrals to customers such as the local homeless shelter, legal clinic, and food pantries.
Do you staff a public service desk? If yes, how many hours on average per week?
No
Have you established protocols for other librarians on duty to follow, particularly when you are not on the desk?
Yes, I have a schedule posted when I am in the office, and staff know how to get clients to connect with me for when I am back or how to schedule an appointment. I have developed resource sheets for urgent needs for when I am away with an encouragement to follow up for further assistance. I have worked with staff to help build comfort and understanding on how to handle behavioral needs such as intoxication or routine behavioral concerns with particular customers. I have been slowly working through our policies and procedures in order to provide suggestions and changes that could be made to be more inclusive and trauma informed.
Do you assist with staff training, if so how often?
Yes, maybe 6 times a year or more, everything from one on one, small groups, to all staff.
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)?
At this time I only log date of contact, time of contact, and what I worked with a client on generically (i.e. housing, food, motivational interviewing, etc.) and if they are a return or new client. I do not track names, demographics, personal information, etc. I have run brief tracking periods in order to track some demographics or housing status over a brief period of time, but that is the extent to which I have logged that information in order to better inform my overall work.
Please estimate the percentage of interactions you have with patrons that are first-time, and what percentage are repeat customers?
20% first time
What are you measuring to indicate success?
Success is per person and cannot be measured by me. True success would be my program not needing to exist, but it does. I look for overall maintaining routine contacts, I see clients no longer coming back as a success, but it is also a success when they come back for new needs to be met. This is why I track a lot of “success” stories and customer comments to help aid in interpreting the data that I collect.
What community partnerships are most valuable to you as a library social worker? How do cultivate those partnerships?
In my community the primary issue is around housing, roughly 60% of the people I work with are unhoused, and out of the 40% that are housed many are talking to me because they are at risk of losing housing. I connect at least monthly if not more often with a local housing action team. Intermittently I connect with other various action teams just to create and maintain partnerships in the areas of mental health, adult protective services, jail reentry, healthcare, etc.
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.”
2 – 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 so many programs that need developing, but we have a serious housing crisis in our area. Very limited affordable housing, and difficult to find income to match that. That with mental health, substance use, and criminal background history can create massive barriers and all of these issues are so interconnected. As an indicator, most people wait 2-4 months for an initial mental health appointment, and an additional 2-4 months to begin scheduling routine appointments after that. This creates huge barriers for those in crisis and for those that struggle to maintain appointments due to their mental health needs.
What advice might you give a library that is considering hiring a social worker?
Every community is unique! There are so many options from hosting social service agencies at the library, starting a food pantry, having a student assess and provide services, part time to full time, to sharing between libraries or within a system. It is very attainable in some capacity, it just depends what you need in your community. You might think that your library does not have needs but it does. Maybe there needs to be aging as a focus, many multicultural needs, or families, every library is different, and so can a social work/social service focus for your library.
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?
I would recommend partnering with a local university for training and assessments for the library on areas of growth for all staff. One person cannot do it all. Everyone can benefit in learning crisis management/de-escalation, trauma-informed service delivery, and more. It is hard to shift away from some of the black and white thinking and introduce more empathy and flexibility into our work, but it can be done!
Is there anything we didn’t ask that you’d like to share?
Please reach out if you have any more questions!