"A place where people are:" Organizational flexibility and the public library in a crisis

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 10: Organizations

Abstract

"There's a lot of talk in librarianship right now about the library as space, moving away from stewardship, and seeing the library as...a place where people are...And there's a big split now amongst librarians with people who are like 'it's not my job to revive you from an overdose. It's not my job to put you in safe housing...I'm not a medical professional. I'm not a social worker...' And then there are other people who say, 'I can't sit and watch someone suffer right in front of me when I have tools that could potentially help that person.'" This project takes up the debate Elena, an urban public librarian, is referencing. Drawing on interviews, a survey, and content analysis of library (broadly defined) documents, this project thinks about the changing role of the public library using the Covid pandemic as a case study. Organizational flexibility is built into the vision of that "library" means and what the role of the librarian should be made possible because of the trust patrons have in libraries, as seen in its response to crises.

Author

• Lydia Nicole Orr, Temple University