Services for the Poor and Homeless

Tips for Providing Quality Services for the Poor and Homeless

The topic of computer access to homeless and poor has come up in a survey put out by the Pasadena Public Library. The survey asks how public computer access has helped patrons. There is a site that will take the user to the survey online. However, it is an unfortunate case that despite these populations being probably the most helped by computer access, they are less likely to go online to fill out the online survey.

Perhaps having a physical survey they can fill out and, if needed, can be intered by a staff memeber or volunteer nto the online platform.

Just FYI.

Blogs/Websites to Watch

• Hunger, Homelessness & Poverty Task Force includes resources on library services to poor people
• ALA's Library Services for the Poor Policy (link corrected October 16, 2012)

Specific Blog Posts/Articles to Check Out

• Library Services to Day Laborers: Relevant sources for folks interested in learning more about day laborers and in crafting library services for them

• Library Service Planning for Socially Excluded : Resource for library staff to begin working collaboratively with socially excluded communities to articulate and respond to their service wants and needs. The Community-Led Toolkit introduces staff to community-led service planning.

• Guidelines for Library Services to Spanish-Speaking Library Use. Necessary resource for everything from outreach to intercultural understanding to personnell recruitment.