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A tool-kit to make everyone welcome
AS one of the most recog- nised ‘third places’, public libraries offer spaces for both pleasure and refuge for people from all walks of life, including those exper- iencing homelessness. This book is based on the author’s 20-plus years’ experi- ence of working in a homeless shelter as well as his portfolio of related training sessions for library staff. The aim is to provide guidance to help library workers better interact with and support the homeless community. It is highly per- sonal and with its informal and chatty style it (largely) manages to avoid politics and makes this potentially difficult subject easier to relate to. The central tenet of the book is that library staff should practice ‘empathy-driven enforce- ment’ (a compassion-based approach for achieving compliance without using the threat of punishment) when engaging with homeless library patrons. Dowd argues that empathy-driven enforcement is incredibly effective and cites a possible 80 per cent reduction in problems with homeless library members if it is adopted. Such impressive statistics are achieved by ac- tively recognising that there are big differences in the mindsets, backgrounds, values between homeless and non-homeless people. Consequently, the tools and techniques used to maintain comfortable library environments for non-home- less library patrons are simply inappropriate (and will there- fore be ineffective) for homeless
52 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
A useful US-inspired look at activities through the decades
THE idea behind this book is that we are always looking to the future for inspiration, for the latest trend that will attract patrons but, rather than looking forward, why not use the past? Thus it uses trends in
Dowd, R. J. (2018). The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness: an empathy-driven approach to solving problems, preventing conflict, and serv- ing everyone. Chicago; ALA. 238pp. 978 0 8389 1626 1. £54.50.
persons. The first part of the book lays the groundwork for this viewpoint by exploring and refuting common homeless- ness stereotypes and then by demonstrating how homeless members are both similar and dissimilar to library staff. Much of the rest of book is about psychology and human behaviour and more specifi- cally, communication and body language. Practical tips are offered including best-practice suggestions for eye contact, posture and speech.
One overriding observation is that this feels more like a book about homelessness than one about libraries and could be rel- evant to anybody working in a customer service/public facing role which involves interacting with homeless people.
Louise Ashton British Library
pop-culture to create a program of assorted activities with each chapter covering a particular decade from the 1950s through to the 2000s. Topics are broken down into manageable portions and detail the preparation time required, the length of the program, a recommended maximum number of patrons plus a suggested age range, required supplies and how to run the event. Although they are aimed at tweens (10-13), teens (14-19), millennials (20-39) or older adults (40-plus) many are suitable for a range of ages and there are suggestions for adapting it for a different age group. However, not all activ- ities are suitable for everyone as it depends on their frame of reference e and, as would be expected, most of those that utilise trends from the older decades are aimed at adults. There is a good range of sugges- tions, and the book is well-laid out and easy to follow with an extensive index. Each chapter introduces the main cultur- al influences of that decade and is followed by activities, crafts and games that utilise food, craft materials, videos and YouTube. For the activ- ities from the older decades, required resources may not always be easily available but
Alessio, Amy, J., LaMantia, Katie, and Vinci, Emily. Pop Culture-Inspired Programs for Tweens, Teens and Adults. Chicago; ALA Editions.144 pp. ISBN 978 0 8389 1705 3. £52.
most of them could be readily sourced. The last section looks at trends that have lasted across all decades such as Disney. A useful book if you are looking for something a bit different to do but be aware it is US-biased so not all cultural references will translate to the UK.
Barbara Band School Library Consultant
June-July 2020
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