Libraries help turn the page, connect patrons with support for life's problems 

At the Middle Country Public Library in Centereach, Veronica Klimek constantly fields questions from patrons. These face-to-face queries aren’t about authors and bestsellers, but revolve around complex issues including housing, family and self-esteem.

“I’m very busy,” she says.

Klimek is a social worker, and she’s part of a growing trend across Long Island in which professionals in her field — and graduate students preparing for the career — do their jobs in local libraries. If you don’t automatically connect this line of work with that location, you’re not alone.

“I never envisioned working in a library,” says Klimek, a Long Island resident for the past decade with a master’s degree from Adelphi University and two tours in Iraq with the Army National Guard under her belt. “It didn’t occur to me.”

But nearly two months into a job at Middle Country, where she works two days a week seeing appointments and walk-ins, advising them in English and in Spanish, this social worker says, “It makes sense. It’s meeting clients where they are at. It’s in the community, a safe place. No one will know you need help — that can actually stop people from seeking help. We’re all vulnerable.”

Of the 110 libraries divided almost evenly between the Nassau Library System and the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, more than 20 offer a part-time social-work service, according to administrators in each who note that numbers can fluctuate and that there’s not a single source keeping track. Some libraries have professional social workers who are paid, typically in partnership with a social service agency, such as the Family Service League. Grant money can be another source of payment funding.

At the Middle Country, Riverhead, Brentwood and Farmingdale libraries, social workers are paid. Other local public libraries provide a service of supervised unpaid graduate students working toward their Master of Social Work degrees at the School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook University.

“Many libraries don’t have it in their budget to hire a social worker,” says field education coordinator Leah Topek-Walker. The school, she adds, has been doing this program for “at least four years.”

Public libraries with Stony Brook grad-student interns this winter include Amityville, Center Moriches, Comsewogue, Connetquot, Freeport, Glen Cove, Half Hollow Hills, Hampton Bays, Huntington, Huntington Station, Longwood, Mastic-Shirley, Northport and East Northport, Patchogue-Medford, Rockville Centre, South Country and West Babylon. Adelphi University in Garden City has social work students placed in libraries in Baldwin and Port Washington, according to Taylor Damian, the university’s associate director for media relations.

A national trend

Social workers within whispering distance of library bookshelves isn’t just a local trend, but a national one, insiders say. Exact figures aren’t available, but Michelle Jeske, director of the Denver Public Library and president-elect of the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, describes the growth of social workers in libraries as “significant.”

The Denver Public Library hired its first full-time social worker in 2015. “We started with one,” she says. “In 2020, we have four. They’re all very busy. Libraries aren’t quiet places anymore. They’re not just about books and haven’t been for decades.”

As libraries have evolved, however, they’ve remained constant in fundamental ways. When it comes to access and the community, they are still a great equalizer. They’re available to all for free.

That matters to Elias, 47, who relies on the social work resource at the Glen Cove Public Library. He grew up in Glen Cove, and he’s now faced with a lack of housing and employment.

“The situation is hard right now,” says Elias, who prefers to use just his first name. “I’ve lived here all my life. It’s a place I love and now I’m getting booted. The living dynamic is changing. I can’t afford it.”

“I’m on the outside looking to the inside,” Elias said during a recent conversation in Glen Cove. “I don’t want pity or someone to feel sorry for me. I just want someone to listen and to understand that I’m in a bad situation.”

Someone does.

Katie Lambert, 30, is in the Stony Brook Master’s in Social Welfare Program — a career switch from her previous job in public relations. Since last fall, she’s been trying to help Elias connect with resources to improve his situation.

“When I was placed in a library I didn’t know what to expect,” Lambert says. “But I’ve been dealing with people who can’t afford clinical service and who need answers on housing and immigration and employment issues.” Answers don’t come easily.

“Social workers should be in all libraries," she continues. “They are little community hubs. When people don’t know where to go, they go to libraries.”

Moreover, she adds, “librarians aren’t trained to deal with many of the issues that come up.”

Conor Cash, 38, a Stony Brook graduate student intern working at Huntington, Huntington Station and Patchogue-Medford libraries since last September, is on the same page. “Libraries are one of the few places that are open to everyone, and that includes populations that are underserved,” he says. “In my own experience, I’m working with a lot of adults who are navigating homelessness.”

“There are so many barriers to getting off the street. It is a long struggle,” adds Cash. “It’s hard being in a position where the path to helping someone isn’t always clear. Still, I have a few people I’ve developed a supportive relationship, and that is something that can be lacking in their life. They inspire me.”

Valerie Lewis, administrator of outreach services at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, coordinates the social work intern program with Stony Brook. “We started having a conversation with Stony Brook five or six years ago,” she says. “We looked at the situation — and the need. People are living with a lot of challenges in our communities.” That includes issues with housing, mental illness, drug addiction and complicated family concerns.

Widening safety net

Oftentimes financial issues, transportation and language barriers, and other factors prevent people from having access to traditional avenues for tracking down resources, information or help. “When people fall between the cracks they land at the library,” says Topek-Walker.

The San Francisco Public Library is credited with hiring the first full-time social worker in 2009, according to Kristen Todd-Wurm, national coordinator of Family Place Libraries, a program with a focus on community connectivity. She’s based at Middle Country library, which has had a part-time social worker since 2003.

“The Family Service League was looking for places to put social workers in the community,” says Todd-Wurm. “We thought, ‘Why not put them in a place that strives to be the community center?’ That’s what libraries do.”

On Stony Brook’s website, a description of its Master of Social Work program refers to “deepening and extending knowledge and experience in bringing about social change.” That appeals to Even Marcos-Gonzalez, 31, a Stony Brook graduate student assigned to Amityville Public Library.

“I chose social work to practice compassion and make a career out of it,” he says. “It grants me the ability to help others. Something I can do a million times that’s no big deal — filling out an application, for example — is difficult for some people. I can be that source of light and help them through the process.”

“A social worker’s job is so multifaceted, because there are so many facets of daily living,” he continues. “Being able to help someone think about something in a different way. Being able to listen to someone else, to smile, to make a joke. Some people don’t have any of that. Being an ally and help guide them. I believe in it.

“When I began to hear that social workers are becoming more prevalent in libraries it made sense. Libraries have always been open to all community members.”

Marcos-Gonzalez recently began facilitating a type 1 diabetes support group at the Amityville library and is considering expanding the group to include type 2 diabetes to reach more members of the community.

Brienne Johnson has worked at Farmingdale Public Library since June 2018. She earned her master’s degree in mental health counseling at LIU Post. Her page on the library’s website advertises help with a gamut of concerns: addiction, anger management, bullying, gender issues, health insurance, housing, parenting, relationships, school, social issues and stress.

“I’ve had patrons express that they’re happy to have the service here, and I’m really happy to have it available as a resource in the library,” she says. “When I do meet with people I encourage them to let others know. It’s valuable in many ways.”

That said, those providing the services and those using them agree there are no simple solutions. But the effort matters.

“A lot of people just don’t know where to go for help,” says Cash. “You go to the library for information.”

Jeske sees more growth in this. “I predict that this will continue to be a trend in public libraries across the country,” she says, adding that Denver Public Library’s “main social worker is part of a task force started by Public Library Association to strategize approaches” so libraries can better address patrons’ social service needs.

On-site social work is just one way libraries have been stretching over the past decade. Stony Brook’s School of Social Welfare is partnering with the university’s Schools of Nursing and Public Health and four libraries in Suffolk County to pilot a program — HeLP, for Healthy Library Program — to address unmet health needs in the community.

In the meantime, Klimek, like others in her field, circulates through the library when she’s not in an appointment and introduces herself to let people know she’s there to help. Her motto: “If you’re having a bad day, I’m here, and if you’re having a good day, I’m here.”

In Glen Cove, Elias says it’s a good day when Lambert is at the library. “It’s a struggle. Katie understands how the system works. She gives me good advice and encourages me not to give up. I wish,” he says, “we could clone her.”