Article: Have You Been to the Library Lately? by Nicholas Hune-Brown

• Librarians once worried about shushing patrons. Now they have to deal with mental health episodes, the homelessness crisis, and random violence.
• This article illuminates the modern library’s evolution into a vibrant community anchor for connection, creation and access beyond just borrowing books.
• Rediscover the indispensable and surprising role libraries play for society by diving deeper.

Recommendation

The local library is no longer used only for its conventional function as a place to find a book, do research or use a computer. Libraries have become one of the last free resources for those in need and that has shifted their focus and the demands on their staff. Nicholas Hune-Brown’s deeply reported story in The Walrus explores the pressures on Canadian librarians who now have to act as untrained social workers, often finding themselves in dangerous and potentially violent situations. Hune-Brown dives into the new evolution of the library and the issues confronting this necessary, beloved institution as “the last public space.”

Take-Aways

• Librarians are now dealing with situations far beyond their expected jobs, including mental health crises and violence.
• Libraries are hiring social workers and adding security.
• With limited funds and distressed personnel, Canadian libraries are beseeching the government for more support.

Summary

Librarians are now dealing with situations far beyond their expected jobs, including mental health crises and violence.

Libraries remain one of the few places people can enter for free, no matter their situation, and seek help, whether to get a book, use a computer to send in a job application, take their kids to hear stories or just warm up on a cold day. When the advent of the internet made some library research services obsolete, libraries pivoted to foster internet access and offer classes and many other programs. As this transition was taking place, rising homelessness and the opioid crisis put a social service burden on libraries as the “last public spaces.”

American philanthropist and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie spent $55 million building 2,509 public libraries worldwide – including 125 in Canada – in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His original vision of libraries providing books to the public has morphed as libraries have had to take on a different function: helping people in desperate need.

“Vicky Varga, a 24-year veteran of Edmonton Public Library, described how the city had moved toward fully integrating social work into the activities of its main library branch. ‘People really do seek this out, because it’s the last truly public space’.”

Canada’s libraries comprise a complex, innovative system. Toronto alone boasts 100 branches and more than a million cardholders. Calgary has a new Central Library, an architectural marvel listed in TIME magazine’s 100 “World’s Greatest Places.” But, like many others, Calgary’s beautiful library is also a gathering place for those who need a kind of help far exceeding the library’s conventional role.

Many of Canada’s homeless people turn to the library to share a quiet haven, get warm, learn about resources, apply for jobs online, use the bathroom and ask for help finding a place to stay when shelters are overcrowded. Though Canada has socialized medicine, people also come to the library for support because they must wait a median period of 22 days for government-funded counseling. Even children rely on the library for mental health support since they can’t get the care they need in the medical sector.

Libraries are hiring social workers and adding security.

Many librarians are now front-line workers doing tasks that should be reserved for experts such as social workers and therapists. They are not trained or equipped to handle social service situations, like mental health crises, drug overdoses or violent episodes. As a result, libraries all over North America are hiring social workers in an effort to help. For instance, Edmonton’s library has three. Libraries are doing what they can to assist the influx of people who turn to them for aid, though they’ve often drawn the line at ideas like providing clothes to those in need.

“Nobody wants to say, ‘I actually don’t want to deal with that overdose in the washroom. I’m not comfortable dealing with someone who is experiencing a serious mental health crisis. I didn’t take this job for that.” (Siobhan Stevenson, University of Toronto Information Science Professor)

Unfortunately, librarians also are being attacked and assaulted in the course of trying to assist troubled people. Some 66% of Canadian librarians report being put in an unsafe situation several times a month; 84% report being verbally assaulted and 75% have had their personal space violated. Toronto recorded 7.16 “violent, disruptive or threatening” incidents per 100,000 visits in 2012; that grew to 35.74 by 2021. Edmonton, where libraries experienced 99 opioid poisonings in 2022, offers librarians training in using naloxone to treat overdoses.

Many library workers, saddened at being unable to help people day in and day out, desperately seek a solution to this problem. They “talk about picking up the phone to call for help and realizing that nobody’s coming.” These employees feel the government is doing little to help and is, instead, trying to silence those who speak out.

“Library workers [are] struggling with the reality that, despite their best efforts, an institution organized around lending out hardcovers might not be up for the job.”

Winnipeg’s Millennium Library installed metal detectors and security staffers in 2019 to deal with the rise in violent episodes. Many people protested, arguing that this maligned the people from poor and marginalized communities who needed the library the most. While violent episodes did decrease, so did the overall usage of the library, so it ended the security program. Then, in 2022, a group of teenagers stabbed a man to death in the library. The library closed for two weeks and reopened with a metal detector and police officers at the entrance.

With limited funds and distressed personnel, Canadian libraries are beseeching the government for more support.

Canada is trying to determine how much social support a library can provide and how to pay for it. With their budgets consistently slashed, libraries are trying to do more with less. Librarians seeking a “sustainable equilibrium” feel distressed by mounting demands they cannot meet, and many are leaving the profession or retiring early, as their pleas fall on deaf ears.

“It’s clear that being ‘the last public space’ isn’t a privilege. It’s a sign that something has gone terribly wrong.”

Library administrators are begging the government for funding and support to help with this shift in society. They are calling on the government to handle more of the social service burden, so needy people don’t have to rely on the library’s strained resources. This would require the public sector to spend more on affordable housing and to provide better social services in places like homeless shelters, schools, community centers and mental health facilities. Thus far, no one seems to have a good answer,and people in trouble continue to lean on libraries as the last place they can go.

About the Author

Nicholas Hune-Brown is a writer for the Walrus, Toronto Life, Hazlitt and The Believer.

Genres

Libraries, Education, Technology, History, Community, Arts/Culture, Literacy, Policy

Review

In this article, Hune-Brown makes a compelling case for rediscovering the modern library’s role as an invaluable community institution. He highlights innovative programs and spaces far beyond just books that provide vital resources and connections – from high-tech tools to creativity studios to programs combatting social isolation.

Through historical lenses, Hune-Brown shows how libraries adapt to serve changing needs, now even lending items like seeds, sports gear and wifi hotspots alongside traditional books and media. He shares inspiring examples like a California library’s mix of online and in-person support groups and a Canadian literary hub fostering immigrant connections.

While covering severe funding threats many libraries face, Hune-Brown spotlights the critical functions libraries uniquely fill. From fostering skills vital to jobs and democracy to bridging digital divides, libraries facilitate access, learning, creation and human bonds often treated as luxuries. He makes a compelling case that revitalizing libraries means investing in our collective future.