256: Creating a Person-Centered Library

Circulating Ideas

Steve chats with Elizabeth A. Wahler and Sarah C. Johnson, authors of the book, Creating a Person-Centered Library: Best Practices for Supporting High-Needs Patrons, about how they came to work with libraries, what a person-centered approach to library work looks like, why it’s important for both library staff and administration to buy in to the approach, and what future trends they see in this area.

Read the transcript!

Elizabeth A. Wahler is Professor and Director of the School of Social Work at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA, and founder of Beth Wahler Consulting. She has collaborated with libraries and library systems across the United States to conduct assessments of their patrons’ psychosocial needs and staff challenges with these types of patron needs; provided training to library staff about trauma-informed librarianship and other approaches to addressing their patrons’ needs; and created and piloted various interventions to address patron needs and support library staff. She is recognized internationally for her work on library and social work collaborations.

Sarah C. Johnson, MLIS, LMSW, is adjunct lecturer at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, where she teaches a course on library social work. She is a licensed social worker, and her research focuses on the impact of social work students conducting their field placements at public libraries. Her aim is to foster quality internships by building alliances among students, public librarians, and social work educators, with the goal of enhancing services to library patrons and their wider community.

SHOW NOTES:

Creating a Person-Centered Library: Best Practices for Supporting High-Needs Patrons