NYS Library Blog

Social Work Perspectives in the Library is written by Antonia Bruno, Excelsior Service Fellow for the NYS Library in the Office of Cultural Education.

These challenges in public libraries are a reflection of social injustices across the country. Marginalized and oppressed folks turn to public libraries for safety and resources. My goal is to provide a social work perspective in supporting libraries across the state handling a shifting role in responsibilities via training and guidelines. The first session will look like an introductory course with definitions of social injustices and trauma-informed practice, as well as discussions around our biases and behaviors working with complex groups. 

This work has the potential to take varying directions in the future. The state’s goal with this initiative is to better support library workers with reaching the needs of all of their patrons, emphasizing social work approaches that can be adopted to create equity in libraries for marginalized patrons. I am hoping that we will reach a wide audience with varying perspectives and experiences in our first webinar. All are welcome! 

Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety

The New York State Library’s Division of Library Development is excited to announce a webinar series beginning February 28th from 10am-11:00am. This series will be held on a monthly basis.

The webinar on February 28th is the first installment in a series which will begin as informational and evolve to serve as a space to learn from one another’s experiences and perspectives to better support staff in meeting patrons' needs in a safe and transparent environment.

Register for Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety 

A very well-known and popular program of the Division of Library Development is State Aid for Library Construction. Funding for this program comes through the New York State annual budget and provides much needed funding for public and association libraries and public library systems across the state. In FY2024-2025, funding was appropriated for $44 million, an increase of $10 million over the prior fiscal year. A needs assessment conducted by DLD collected data from libraries across the state and indicates an additional $1.75 billion in essential library construction costs for 2023-2027.

Review of the FY2024-2025 projects is continuing, and we hope to have the projects sent to DASNY for review in March. As part of regular communications with the field, Program Manager Natalie McDonough has begun regularly scheduled meetings to discuss questions, updates, and suggestions from our partners in New York’s 23 public library systems. Response to these meetings has been very positive and system contacts have expressed appreciation for this new opportunity to collaborate. 

Social Work Perspectives in the Library is written by Antonia Bruno, Excelsior Service Fellow for the NYS Library in the Office of Cultural Education.

Social work and library work are intertwined professions when one considers the pressure placed on library staff to work with vulnerable patrons, take de-escalation trainings, gather community resources and aids mimicking social services’ jobs, just for a few examples. As a social worker who worked as a social services advocate in a public library, I can attest to the overlap of the two professions and the lack of support for library workers acting in place of social workers. The Urban Library Trauma Study sent out a survey to hundreds of library staff across the country, 255 respondents described “facing traumatic events in libraries including verbal abuse, physical assault or abuse, harassing and inappropriate behavior, and situations related to patron’s drug and alcohol use, or mental health” (2022). While this data comes strictly from library staff working in urban areas, libraries across the country are faced with similar challenges that negatively affect library workers, the library environment, and patrons all around.

Wahler et al., note “that deinstitutionalization during the 60’s and following decades increased patrons in libraries managing homelessness and mental illnesses, as they were [and are] safe and free spaces” (2020). The deinstitutionalization movement offered independence to individuals who would have otherwise spent the rest of their lives in a mental hospital, however, this movement did not offer those individuals support on how to reintegrate into society following discharge. Libraries became the spaces that people felt safe to go to. “By the early 1990’s, librarians were changing to de facto psychotherapists, security guards, surrogate parents, and advocates” (Wahler et al., 2020). Fast forward a few decades, the e-government transition in the early 2000’s added to the burden for library staff to act as social workers. A comparison is drawn between settlement houses and libraries; “social work’s settlement houses providing educational, artistic, and social programs for immigrants, the poor, and the working class” (Soska & Navarro, 2020). The beginnings of social work practice in settlement houses translate both to modern day social work and library practice. A University of Pennsylvania study notes that “public libraries are dynamic, socially responsive institutions, a nexus of diversity, and a lifeline for the most vulnerable among us” (Cabello & Butler, 2017). That statement encompasses the mission statements of public libraries; however, they are still learning how to manage working with vulnerable patrons. 

There’s push for social workers in libraries because of the aforementioned reasons; while library workers have been acting as social services agents and connecting patrons to resources, there may be a better approach. “Library social work collaborations tend to reduce the frequency in which police are called for emergency assistance, minimize escalating events, lower the suspension of patron’s library privileges, and reduce staff stress” (Johnson & Wahler, 2023). A collaborative effort between the two professions can better meet the needs of the community as well as offer a new setting for social workers to expand their practice and broaden their social justice impact. The American Library Association states, “social workers seek to identify and connect people to resources and supports that foster empowerment, resiliency, and inclusivity while libraries provide free, safe, and resource rich-spaces rooted in equity, diversity, and inclusion” (2018). The intersection of the values of each profession identifies how they help expand the work efforts of the other.  

Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety

The New York State Library’s Division of Library Development is excited to announce a webinar series beginning February 28th from 10am-11:00am. This series will be held on a monthly basis.

The webinar on February 28th is the first installment in a series which will begin as informational and evolve to serve as a space to learn from one another’s experiences and perspectives to better support staff in meeting patrons' needs in a safe and transparent environment.

Register for Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety 

In December, 2024, Chelsea Teale of the New Netherland Research Center published an article in the journal of the Holland Society, de Halve Maen. Based on an accidental find in the New York State Archives Applications for Land Grants collection, Dr. Teale was able to piece together the owner and location of a stream depicted on three maps and in other documents: Teunis Viele’s Killetie (Teunis Viele’s Little Stream).  

The stream ran along the course of what is now Livingston Avenue in Albany and enters into the Hudson River. It is possible that the stream was routed underground in the eighteenth century to accommodate the developing Albany Basin. The article encourages people to use the collection to find obscure geographic information like extinct place names and locations.  

In the image below, it is possible to see the labeled stream extending from the Hudson River southeast.

Social Work Perspectives in the Library is written by Antonia Bruno, Excelsior Service Fellow for the NYS Library in the Office of Cultural Education.

This intersection of research is supported by my previous employment at a public library as a social services advocate while completing my Master of Social Work (MSW) degree. For the second year of my MSW program, I worked at a library on Long Island in which my role was to assist patrons with their social service needs. This included social service applications, employment searching and resume building, interdisciplinary collaboration, referral services, and community collaboration. 

I quickly realized the benefit of social work in libraries. Within my time at Lindenhurst Memorial Library, I tracked over 1,000 patron interactions in just 10 months of part-time employment. These interactions included scheduled and drop-in appointments, phone calls, emails, and referral services, and sometimes, offering a listening ear to staff. Once my role was established and promoted by the library, patron interactions skyrocketed.  

Next up: More on the intersection of social work and the library.

Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety

The New York State Library’s Division of Library Development is excited to announce a webinar series beginning February 28th from 10am-11:00am. This series will be held on a monthly basis.

The webinar on February 28th is the first installment in a series which will begin as informational and evolve to serve as a space to learn from one another’s experiences and perspectives to better support staff in meeting patrons' needs in a safe and transparent environment.

Register for Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety 

Introducing: Social Work Perspectives in the Library

The NYS Library has launched an initiative to improve the best practices of working with vulnerable populations seen every day at libraries across the State. Please join us in welcoming Antonia Bruno, Excelsior Service Fellow for the NYS Library in the Office of Cultural Education. Antonia recently graduated with a Master of Social Work degree from Stony Brook University. She'll be using the NYS Library blog to share her expertise and ongoing work in this critical area.

Meet Antonia

As the first social worker at the New York State Library, my assignment involves conducting outreach to libraries across the State that are facing crisis while working with vulnerable patrons. I reached a wide audience through a call-out via the NYLINE listserv, where I introduced myself, described the state’s initiative to research the intersection of social work and library work and provided a bookings page for interested parties to schedule a meeting. Within the first three weeks, more than 20 library workers across the state scheduled meetings to discuss their experiences working with vulnerable patrons. Discussions focused on existing support structures (or lack thereof) available to help libraries serve these communities and identifying gaps in much needed services. We also discussed their thoughts on social work in libraries.  

To date, I have held over 40 meetings with library workers from various locations across the state, generally highlighting the significant need in many communities. These conversations highlighted common struggles experienced by New York’s public libraries. This blog series aims to share the common perspectives of those interviewed, as well as highlight best practices and showcase resources that might be helpful to public libraries serving vulnerable populations and explore the complex relationship between library services and social work.   

Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety

The New York State Library’s Division of Library Development is excited to announce a webinar series beginning February 28th from 10am-11:00am. This series will be held on a monthly basis.

The webinar on February 28th is the first installment in a series which will begin as informational and evolve to serve as a space to learn from one another’s experiences and perspectives to better support staff in meeting patrons' needs in a safe and transparent environment.

Register for Libraries Working with Vulnerable Patrons: Practices to Ensure Staff and Patron Safety 

Smokey Bear

Throughout 2024, New York State partnered with the Collaborative Summer Library Program and the USDA/Forest Service to promote and support the Smokey Bear Reading Challenge in libraries across the state and the country. A survey offered in fall 2024 was responded to by 134 libraries. These public libraries indicated that during the summer and fall of 2024 over 6,000 people engaged with the challenge at their libraries. Libraries used the free materials, resources, and reading lists made available through this partnership with the USDA/Forest Service and CSLP in many different events and learning activities for all ages. Libraries found creative ways to promote the challenge and raise awareness and appreciation of nature and outdoor activities as well as fire safety and prevention.  

Youth Services Basics Course

A new and comprehensive Youth Services Basics online course will be available soon on the NYS Library’s Moodle platform. This course is appropriate for public library staff who are brand new to Youth Services or for staff who are looking for a refresher in specific areas. There are four different sections in the online course, and staff will have an opportunity to complete selected modules or take the entire course at their own pace. Staff will be able to earn a certificate of completion that can be used towards professional development hours by taking a short quiz and completing a brief survey after each section. The course is designed so that it can be updated as needed and appropriate content can be included or changed.  

Additional Opportunities

Update on training and professional development opportunities for public libraries: the State Library is coordinating a Transforming Teen Services in-person workshop training to occur April 15 at Mid York Library System – attendees will learn about Connected Learning and ways to reach underserved teens in their communities. A 5-week session of Supercharged Storytimes for All early literacy training will be held online this spring, for public library staff working with young children and their families.  An early literacy statewide webinar on sensory storytimes is being planned for April 2025.  

On February 11, the NYS Library will host a statewide webinar on the Erie Canal bicentennial taking place in 2025. This webinar is intended to help libraries with program planning at their libraries and in their communities and will share information on Erie Canal resources to engage youth and families to learn more about this important transportation route in American history. Full details and a link to register can be found on the NYS Library Calendar of Events.  

The NYS Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials grant program funds the preservation of library materials in collections across New York State. Museums, libraries, historical societies, zoos, and other not-for-profit organizations that have research materials are eligible for funding. Types and formats that are eligible are bound books, archives, photographs, maps, architectural drawings, and audio and moving images.  

Applications are due March 31, 2025, for the 2025-2026 grant year. 

In November 2024, Chelsea Teale of the New Netherland Research Center published an article in the journal of the Lewes Historical Society, Lewes History.  

In the article, Dr. Teale provides a transcription of a 1661 medicine chest sent to what is now New Castle, Delaware by the City of Amsterdam. The city also sent a new surgeon, Jacob Kommer. 

The Dutch-language list of contents includes predictable tools like tourniquets and basins, but also 20 different botanicals for use in medicines.  

Some important updates regarding wi-fi hotspots, cybersecurity pilot program participants, and Supreme Court decisions affecting New Yorkers, in particular:

Wi-Fi Hotspots Initial Interest and Potential Threats for FY2025 

Early data coming in shows a strong initial interest in wi-fi hotspots and/or hotspot services. Over 700 applicants (including 34 from New York) were received. You can read more at Funds for Learning's website.

E-Rate Central's Win Hemsworth covers the potential threats to E-Rate eligibility in the E-Rate Central Newsletter. 

FCC Cybersecurity Pilot Participants Selected

In January, the FCC released their selection of 707 participants in the Cybersecurity Pilot Program. Of the 707, 62 are from New York. Read the FCC's Public Notice.

New York's Affordable Broadband Act in Effect

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case against NY State's Affordable Broadband Program, which means it has become effective as of January 15th by action of the NYS Public Service Commission. The new law requires internet service providers to provide access to monthly broadband rates of 25mbps for $15 or 200mbps for $20 to qualifying households. 

Please contact Christine Filippelli, State E-Rate Coordinator for Libraries (christine.filippelli@nysed.gov) with any questions.