<
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/02/11/colorado-librarians-social-workers-denver-public-library-homelessness-drugs/>
"An average day for Rosalie Rodriguez can involve organizing a craft activity
for 3-year-olds while compiling book recommendations for a picky teen.
A parent in a hurry might request a hard-to-find read at the same time a patron
in the corner nods off, making Rodriguez wonder whether they’re having a
medical emergency she needs to address or if they just closed their eyes for a
moment.
“There are all these things happening at the same time, every day,” Rodriguez
said.
The children’s and family librarian at the Jefferson County Public Library’s
Belmar branch in Lakewood can’t help but laugh when people learn her profession
and comment on how lucky she is to just sit behind a desk and read all day.
Walk into one of metro Denver’s public libraries — among the few spaces where
anyone can come inside and exist for free — and you’ll find a microcosm of
society’s most pressing issues:
* Homelessness in Denver is at a peak, evidenced by the dozens of patrons in
the city’s Central Library during a recent visit who were toting their
possessions in trash bags and suitcases.
* Colorado doesn’t have enough mental health professionals, as illustrated by
the hundreds of welfare checks a year by Denver police officers and medics
across the city’s library branches.
* Local food banks are scrambling to keep up with demand, so when a patron at
the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library told workers during a
recent visit that he was hungry and thirsty, an employee handed the young man a
granola bar and bottle of water.
* And as Colorado contends with deadly substance-use crises, libraries in
Boulder and three Denver suburbs closed temporarily in 2022 and 2023 after meth
users contaminated their bathrooms.
If public libraries act as an epicenter for society’s shortfalls, then their
librarians are on the front lines of crisis intervention, tending to their
communities’ most vulnerable populations while trying to keep their buildings
safe and welcoming to all amid rising legislative attacks on intellectual
freedoms across the nation."
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
