Previous page, top, Reading to Recovery title screen; Left, the Westcoates Free Library in Leicester; right, Matt and Lee at the library.


Above, Lee talks books; Left, the trophy on display; below, a reading session.


education and self-improvement. It’s what they did for me early on: [they] provided a safe, quiet place where I could explore books and ideas almost randomly, free of charge, with neither a curriculum nor the expectation of testing to narrow my interests.” Before austerity became a political mantra and professionally qualified staff were squeezed out, public libraries and related organisation made com- mendable efforts to support homeless people (https://bit.ly/3c4fGwx). Today there is “a loss of focus on vital outreach ser- vices … [and] few services … remain for homeless people”. (Anon 2018) In the cinema, however, interest in the area has increased. In addition to Rohan Patel’s prize-winning short there is The Public, a major American feature film, which has had limited UK release but should be available here on Region 2 DVD from June.


This is not a true story but was inspired by an essay written by the American librarian Chip Ward (2009). The film is about a group of homeless people who refuse to leave a public library at closing time because the weather is freezing and they have nowhere to go. As the plot progresses politicians and the media distort and exaggerate what is happening and the police are sent to evict those seeking shelter. According to Rolling Stone the picture’s underlying message is “how libraries are now one of the last outpost(s) of American democracy …. a public institution that provides access to books, the internet, social interaction


March 2020


and the basic tenets of shelter.” (Travers 2019)


Not all in our profession believe that public libraries can provide targeted care for society’s most vulnerable. Eustace (2019), for example, suggests that such provision is “a disservice to ourselves and our customers because we are diverting resources and energy away from our core business … [and] also … a disservice to the homeless because we are not equipped to provide them with the level of service they need and deserve.” This is something you may wish to debate, but we must avoid treating citizens as customers and be aware of making the best the enemy of the good.


To quote David Wharton (ibid) who visited Lee’s Book Club: “The people drawn into Westcotes Library on that rainy winter night had all been alienated from the structures of society, and this group was a toehold on normality for them. For some, it seemed, it was turning into more than that – the beginnings of a route back in.” They were, thanks to their local library, on a journey from reading to recovery. IP


l Watch the film at https://bit.ly/2wJEYj7


References


Anon (2018). Library cuts hurt us all, but they hit homeless people the hardest. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/ public-leaders-network/2018/apr/07/library-cuts-hurt-hit-homeless-people- council-outreach


Blank, B. T. (nd) Public Libraries Add Social Workers and So- cial Programs. The New Social Worker. https://www.socialworker. com/feature-articles/practice/public-libraries-add-social-workers-and-so- cial-programs/


Dowd, R. (2013). The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYiEEhhrFh4


Eustace, J (2019). I Have to Ask: Libraries and Homelessness. ELGL https://elgl.org/i-have-to-ask-library-as-a-special-place/


Library support for homeless people: responses to a call for information, October 2016. https://www.seapn.org.uk/uploads/files/ Library-support-for-homeless-people.pdf


Millar, H. (2019.) Books send homeless man ‘into a different world.’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leicestershire-46864436/ books-send-homeless-man-into-a-different-world


Mogul, P (2014). Why I’m Giving Homeless People Books, Not Food. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/priyanka-mogul/helping-the-home- less_b_5636890.html


Reading to Recovery (2019). Can be seen at: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=yXnSFD7TNOs


Snaith, M. (2019). Why I Chose to Have My Book Launch in the Local Library… http://www.mahsudasnaith.com/


Snaith, M. (2019). How To Find Home. Doubleday.


Travers, P. (2019). ‘The Public’ Movie Review: Life, Liberty and the Library as a Battlefield. Rolling Stone, April 5 https://www. rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-public-movie-review-emilio-es- tevez-816642/


Vega, H. (2019.) Public libraries and homelessness: Connecting vulnerable patrons to community resources Masters Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Division of The University of Hawaii At Mānoa. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii. edu/bitstream/10125/63202/Vega_hawii_0085O_10127.pdf


Ward, C (2009). What They Didn’t Teach Us in Library School: The Public Library as an Asylum for the Homeless. http://chip- wardessays.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-they-didnt-teach-us-in-library.html


Wharton, D. (2019). Finer Things. Sandstone Press


Wharton, D. (2020). Personal email to the author. This later became part of a blog which can be seen at: https://david-whar- ton.com/2020/01/09/westcotes-homeless-peoples-reading-group-leicester/


INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 39


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