{"title":"“O brave new world”1: A case study of a social worker in the public library","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.lisr.2024.101313","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Public libraries are adding social workers to staff as a way of improving their response to the social services needs of library users. This case study of how one public library system undertook to hire a social worker and integrate the position into the life of the library follows the results of this undertaking for roughly 18 months, utilizing semi-structured interviews and corroborating findings with official documentation on the library's website and other documents provided directly by participants. Abbott's system of professions provides the theoretical framework for this case study, which also asks about the potential impact of social work on the profession of librarianship. Overall, participants are very satisfied with the social worker position, even though her defined duties are narrow. This study adds to the knowledge of how social workers are being embedded in libraries and provides needed insights into implications for librarianship as a profession.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47618,"journal":{"name":"Library & Information Science Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Library & Information Science Research","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740818824000343","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Public libraries are adding social workers to staff as a way of improving their response to the social services needs of library users. This case study of how one public library system undertook to hire a social worker and integrate the position into the life of the library follows the results of this undertaking for roughly 18 months, utilizing semi-structured interviews and corroborating findings with official documentation on the library's website and other documents provided directly by participants. Abbott's system of professions provides the theoretical framework for this case study, which also asks about the potential impact of social work on the profession of librarianship. Overall, participants are very satisfied with the social worker position, even though her defined duties are narrow. This study adds to the knowledge of how social workers are being embedded in libraries and provides needed insights into implications for librarianship as a profession.
期刊介绍:
Library & Information Science Research, a cross-disciplinary and refereed journal, focuses on the research process in library and information science as well as research findings and, where applicable, their practical applications and significance. All papers are subject to a double-blind reviewing process.