Sundays, January 5, 12, 19, 26, 2014 12:00-4:00pm CDC 20 St. Catherine University Mary Nienow, MSW, Clinical Instructor and Director of Internship, Department of Social Work, UW-Eau Claire Sara Zettervall, MLIS, MFA, Associate to the University Librarian, University of Minnesota “I may not be a social worker, but I know how to find one for… Continue reading LIS 7961: Whole Person Librarianship
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A change to the site and a call for participation
This site started with the intention of promoting a discussion of how librarianship and social work come together. We've had some amazing content to share over the seven or so months of weekly posts - but we're also finding it challenging to bring in new voices beyond our core participants. Meanwhile, our work on Whole… Continue reading A change to the site and a call for participation
“I’m not a social worker, but I know how to find you one.”
Coming out of a very successful session at this year’s Minnesota Library Association conference, that’s the statement we’d like every librarian to feel confident to make to patrons. But how do we reach that end? Our full session room – 40 people – held an intense discussion on the intersection of librarianship and social work… Continue reading “I’m not a social worker, but I know how to find you one.”
Information Literacy Needs of Social Work Students
Before I dive into a brief review of a few articles published by academic librarians about the information literacy needs of social work students, I wanted to remind everyone that Sara Zettervall will be leading a session, "...And Social Justice for All: How Can Librarians and Social Workers Collaborate?," at the upcoming Minnesota Library Association… Continue reading Information Literacy Needs of Social Work Students
Blurred Lines, the Digital Divide, and the Question of Control
This post has nothing to do with Robin Thicke. With that out of the way, I just finished "Librarian or Social Worker: Time to Look at the Blurring Line?" by Rachael Cathcart.* Published in 2008, it anticipates the current call for public librarians to facilitate health care sign-ups. Cathcart focuses on e-government, stating, Services for which… Continue reading Blurred Lines, the Digital Divide, and the Question of Control
Librarians : Patrons :: Social Workers : Clients (Part 2 of 2)
Last week, I suggested that turning to a model of how social workers interact with clients might be useful for librarians who work with homeless patrons. In a related post today, I want to continue thinking about how looking to the relationship between social workers and their clients might reinforce particular values already important in… Continue reading Librarians : Patrons :: Social Workers : Clients (Part 2 of 2)
Librarians : Patrons :: Social Workers : Clients (Part 1 of 2)
I've been thinking about the models or theories librarians turn to when they work with patrons. In a series of two posts, I'd like to consider how librarians might turn to social workers' relationships with clients to reimagine the librarian-to-patron relationship. This first post focuses on the highly visible topic of homeless patrons and how… Continue reading Librarians : Patrons :: Social Workers : Clients (Part 1 of 2)
A Report from the Trenches
The university library where I currently work is embedded in a neighborhood with a significant Somali immigrant population--the same neighborhood, in fact, where Mary and I held the book club last year. This neighborhood, Cedar-Riverside, is fairly close to two public libraries, but there isn't one within safe walking distance, so there has been a… Continue reading A Report from the Trenches
Macro and Micro Librarianship
In discussing possibilities for the conference session this fall, one of our panelists suggested looking at librarianship through social work's "macro" and "micro" views. This blog post* provides a critique of the macro/micro divide, but in doing so, it also provides a good, brief introduction: Macro and Micro social work are interdependent concepts. One cannot… Continue reading Macro and Micro Librarianship
Ethical Librarians and the Public Good
One of my interests in this project of examining the intersections of social work and librarianship is to consider how librarians might more visibly champion the public good like social workers do. This post considers two ways that librarians tend to devalue their own work in this vein: first, highlighting libraries as institutions rather than… Continue reading Ethical Librarians and the Public Good
Whole Person Librarianship 