Change is needed in traditional archival institutions to promote true community building; but change takes time. Some stories are dying with the beautiful people who keep the tales of family lore close to their heart. With a few scanners and energetic community members, these stories will be archived now and displayed through an interactive, colorful, and user-friendly medium.
Flickr.com, source: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
Home economics, once one of the main elective course options available to teenagers in the United States, has gone by the wayside in most junior and high schools, due to shifts in society such as
the women’s liberation movement and school districts’ desires to offer more academically-focused courses (Linkedin. com, 2023). Learning skills such as cooking, money management, and childcare have been replaced with college-readiness courses and classes focused on standardized tests. Relics of the past, such as electric stove tops and sewing machines, collect dust in closets and repurposed classrooms across the country.
“Many blame an ongoing shortage of qualified teachers, while others worry that continued focus on testing, along with budget slashing, will make it hard to bring family and consumer science electives back into the curriculum” reports Danovich in a 2018 article (npr.org).
Food is central to culture and quality of life and can provide not only nourishment, but balance. Applauding Michelle Obama’s campaign, “Let’s Move,” which updated school menus nationwide (much to my own children’s disappointment!), doctors Lichtenstein and Ludwig bemoan that nutrition education often ends at cafeteria doors (2010).
“Better choices in schools will ultimately have limited effects if children do not have the ability to make better choices in the outside-school world, where they spend the majority of their time when young and which they inhabit when older. If children are raised to feel uncomfortable in the kitchen, they will be at a disadvantage for life” (Lichtenstein & Ludwig, 2010, p.1).
There are, however, many examples of local branch library staff filling this information gap, particularly in cookery.
Andy Woodworth addressing cooking classes in a library setting writes, “Food represents so very much within our culture and social lives. It triggers treasured memories, extends hospitality, provides the shared experience of first dates, serves as a pretext for family and friends’ gatherings, and is praised both as a virtue and a vice for how it makes us look and feel” (2014). Woodworth goes on to suggest practical tips for beginning a library cooking program, such as logistical challenges and ways to avoid calls to the fire department.
Omaha Library in Nebraska offered cooking classes in the past, hosting kids in the library to cook breakfast goodies. Flickr, Cooking for Teens: Breakfast at Sorenson Branch (2013).
The School Library Journal offers a blog entry on their “Teen Library Toolbox” website for “For teen librarians short on time, short on money, but not, short on passion” (2023). Karen Jensen, a teen services librarian, gushes in her post about the many wonders of small electric cooking gadgets when cooking with teens in the library. Mini-waffle makers, griddles, blenders, and lots of patience are her tools for culinary success with young people.
Photo credit: Karen Jensen
Jensen creates lessons that are fun and easy and incorporate what kids are familiar with, such as quick TikTok recipes and the show Cupcake Wars. Who knew you could make eggs, garlic bread, and chicken parmesan with a miniature waffle maker?
Library assistant, Stacey Desrosiers of the Goffstown Public Library in New Hampshire, began her engaging cooking and life-skills program for teenagers during COVID lockdown, and continues the program today. Cooking tutorials are the most popular, however, Desrosiers’ GPL YouTube channel also offers segments on grocery shopping, laundry, and finances–all the good stuff those of us over 45 were once taught between math and history classes.
Programs such as these are examples of “learning by doing” as suggested in Michael Stephen’s Heart of Librarianship (2016). Cooking with teenagers will undoubtedly require fortitude and plenty of rags for cleaning up. “Real-messiness offers a level of experience unmatched by classroom activities” writes Stephens (2016, p. 124). While this sentiment was in reference to LIS courses for adults, it seems almost more literal and applicable in this instance. “Learning by play, exploration, and creation,” (Stephens, 2016, p. 124) is embodied in these programs hosted by fearless librarian staff members spending time with hormonal teens, raw eggs, and powdery flour, which seems to find its way into each surrounding crevice and surface.
These librarians, and many more like them, truly fill an information gap, and do so by following the aforementioned mantra of “learning by doing.” They pick up their whisks, aprons, and I guess, waffle makers, and make a delicious difference in teenagers’ lives.
Leave a comment if you see yourself adding a program such as these at your library @emmizo
Lichtenstein, A. H., & Ludwig, D. S. (2010). Bring back home economics education. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 303(18), 1857–1858. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.592
Stories of adorable children finding the books of their dreams. Inspirational anecdotes about librarians going above and beyond for their patrons. Beautiful tales of the perseverance of an urban library staff getting materials to those at the outer reaches of their county. With social media at hand, we are provided with an overwhelming deluge of amazing stories fed to us all day, and every day, by way of an algorithm designed for us and by us with lazy, nonchalant clicks, hovers, and shares.
But what of the invisible, the forgotten, the controversial, the dangerous, the accused, the convicted, the exonerated, the released? As future information professionals, we would be remiss if we did not explore and expose ourselves to the entire community’s stories. This includes the stories of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated.
My local library in Sacramento, California has an inspiring speaker series called “See who enters the chat next”. While the stories offered here all warrant a deep listen, Ear Hustle tugged at my heart. Below you can watch a bit of the November 2023 chat presented by Sac Library, sharing Nigel Poor’s and Earlonne Woods’ podcast, Ear Hustle.
Ear Hustle was birthed in 2017 by artist Nigel Poor and two people who were incarcerated, Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams. The podcast, the first to be started and produced in prison, simply allows those inside prison and those who were incarcerated to share their stories.
Stories of awaiting one’s sentence while bunking with someone about to give birth.
Stories of carving out a home in a Central California Women’s Facility.
Stories, that for those of us who are sheltered (through little fault of our own), have never had to consider. But here they are. Waiting for you to listen. Stories have the incredible power to foster our relation to one another as humans and the podcast revolution is making these stories accessible. “Story-based experiences of all kinds can increase listeners’ understanding of diverse groups, demonstrate the value of everyone’s experience, and remind listeners of their shared humanity,” shares Michael Stephens about a library conference presentation he participated in called, “The Power of Stories” (2020, April 9).
Ear Hustle’s “story based experiences” are not stories about the inmates’ crimes for the most part. If you are hoping for the gory details of the true crime ilk, listen elsewhere. Inmates are describing their daily life, wishes, and regrets. Woods started the project to highlight the Three Strikes Law and found his passion for storytelling. Woods was sentenced to 31-years-to-life in 1997. His sentence was commuted in 2018 and he began producing the podcast full time. The subject of episode eight, Curtis Roberts, was not so fortunate. “I’m a stupid idiot who stole some money,” said Roberts who was sentenced to 50-years-to-life for committing three non-violent crimes. His tale of hope can be discovered in, “Left behind.”
“The idea is to never talk about policy, but to tell stories that bring up policy and let people make up their own minds,” relays Poor when discussing the podcast focusing on the Three Strikes Law. As the stories unfold, legal issues arise and are discussed; and yet, they are not the focus.
In another Ear Hustle episode, “Home for Me is Really a Memory,” the hosts allow the subject to tell her story. Serving the most time of any interviewee on the show (50 years), Woods and Poor had to conduct the interview over the telephone. She committed a well-known crime, and still the crime was not the focus; the human was. “We didn’t want the story to be about her crime; we wanted it to be a story about what it is like to be in prison for 50 years. What is your life like?” asked Poor during the Sacramento Library chat.
This episode featured one of Charles Manson’s groomed killers in the seventies, Leslie Van Houten. She said “My favorite thing was to ride on dad’s shoulders. I’m trying not to cry.” She was 19 when she committed her crime. The hosts described, during the Sacramento Library chat, the juxtaposition of listening to a grandmotherly voice over a “tinny line” and then thinking about where she is and what she did so long ago.
Ear Hustle uses sound strategically to carry you along and place you as close as possible to the storyteller–as close as an earbud can bury itself into your ear.
Illustration by Damien Linnane https://www.earhustlesq.com/episodes/2023/12/20/bunkies
“Ear hustle has been like a window to the world for people,” says Woods in reference to the podcast opening the eyes (or dare I say ears) of a prison commissioner. The commissioner said that listening to the stories shared on the podcast changed how he viewed the prisoners, those of whom were his charge. The commissioner put their lives into context, some gritty and some clear, and gained a better understanding of their lives outside of prison and began to see them more as people.
People with stories.
Thank you to the Sacramento Public Library staff for “curating stories in their many forms,” (Stephens, 2019) for us all to hear.
It was during Michael Stephens’ lecture this semester on New Models for libraries that I had a flashback to the library of my youth. Seeing those kids in Copenhagen playing around atop bookshelves, I thought to myself, “They would not have allowed that in my day (198o whenever).” And then I thought, wait, yes “they” did.
Back in the long-ago days of being shushed and reprimanded for venturing into the “adult” section of the library, sat a small, brick library in Sacramento County.
The great Hank Aaron. https://www.flickr.com/photos/btard/135636708/in/photolist
There, the Rancho Cordova library staff made available in the “children’s” section, a small little house made of fabric. I can still see the cloth, brick facade and painted windows framed in yellow. My family lived in a tiny house with three girls of varying size and two tired parents. When my father would drive us to the library and let us loose, that little brick house (that wasn’t pretend to me, by the way) was my first stop. Well, maybe my second stop after grabbing a book about baseball. I bounded in, hoping with all of my little heart that it was unoccupied. It was my little sanctuary. Our “real” house was lovingly cluttered and cramped and LOUD. To have a little time to myself to stretch my short, scabbed-up legs out and read about Hank Aaron meant the world to me. Just me and and the home-run king. Those were the days before I was told by fifth grade teacher to redo my “Dream Job” assignment, because it would be impossible for me to grow up to be a San Francisco Giants baseball player. Those were the days before my adolescent fears kept me from being “too sporty.” Those were the days when I still dreamed.
Very similar to my branch’s playhouse. https://www.flickr.com/photos/koalalady/16001449410/in/photolist-9zrTx6-qnZBqN
That little fabric house was my palace of dreams (and a place all my own). Eric Klinenberg explained his inspiration for studying and revisiting New York City libraries came partly from the thoughts of Andrew Carnegie who, he said, “thought libraries should be palaces for the people; places where people would go and make their lives a little more exalted for as long as they could be there” (Peet, 2018). Libraries were essentially designed to be, and for many still are, a place to escape one’s cramped quarters and a “space to create, to think, and to fulfill some dreams” describes Pam Smith in a Ted Talk about the future of 21st century libraries (2013).
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/gallery
When my daughters and I lived in a 900 square-foot apartment years ago (this time just two girls of varying size and one tired parent), we would go to the Vally-Hi North Laguna Branch library for a little escape. I had to drag those girls out of the library’s towering cylindrical room with paper butterflies hanging at different levels from the high ceiling, darting between the sun’s rays streaming in from the wall of windows. Talk about feeling exalted! Circled with comfy seating in bright blues and greens, the room is just off the area of the library housing books for young readers. Who knows what my girls with scabby knees were dreaming about?
I dearly hope no one ever told them their dreams were impossible.
DocsTeach is a free service offered by the National Archives to provide instructors with public domain images and activities for students to expand upon learned experiences and course instruction. Students using these tools will be provided the opportunity to contextualize historical events and instructors can help students see themselves, family members, and ancestors in these complicated and historically significant images.
DocsTeach provides structured age-appropriate activities, or the opportunity to create activities, that involve the student directly in making observations and document analysis. “These participatory spaces are where learning will occur. Understanding and empathy among cross-cultural partners in a technological environment is the key to success,” argues Michael Stephens (2016). Libraries (and schools) need to “change the way they craft their services and tools so that users (students) have a clear and open avenue on which to communicate and participate,” argues Casey and Savastinuk in Library 2.0 (2007).
This unique program would serve Sacramento City Unified School District well in that instructors can curate the activities to serve the diverse student population of SCUSD. In an effort to produce “globally competitive life-long learners” as the district’s mission statement purports, the district and its educators should make every effort to include the student in the learning process. Students are accustomed to participatory media such as TikTok and Instagram. Why not allow students to be more active participants in their lessons?
Goals and Objectives
Empower students to take control of their own learning in the social sciences
Tailor learning to meet the specific cultural and demographic needs of the class
Provide a welcoming and respectful environment by using images and documents that better represent the diversity of the SCUSD student body
Foster debate and engagement with thought-provoking digital images
Promote participation learning through visual and written student evaluations
Action Brief
Convince: Sacramento City Unified School District administrators, elementary school teachers, and social sciences teachers That by:including the National Archives DocsTeach program into their history and social science curriculum and/or part of their school library visits They will: encourage their students to ask questions, discover evidence, and participate in debates over the interpretation of what they see in the DocsTeach images Which will: promote engagement with history and encourage students to offer their own perspective of history, which will make history lessons easier to digest, especially if the instructor chooses an example that a majority of students will find relatable Because: the mission statement as a district aims for students to “graduate as globally competitive life-long learners, prepared to succeed in a career and higher education institution of their choice to secure gainful employment and contribute to society” (SCUSD, 2024) And because: Sac Unified students represent the diversity of the city with the student population being 40 percent Hispanic or Latino; 17 percent Asian; 14 percent African American; and 18 percent white. About 7 percent of students are of two or more races or ethnicities. Residents within SCUSD speak more than 51 languages (SCUSD, 2024). Instructors and administrators should have this diversity at the front of their minds as they develop lesson plans that are engaging and participatory.
Moton High School Classroom; ca. 1951; Civil Action No. 1333; Dorothy E. Davis, et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County et al.; Civil Case Files, 1938 – 12/31/1990; Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives at Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/moton-class, March 15, 2024]
Who will DocsTeach help?
All SCUSD students will benefit from this participatory learning available through DocsTeach. Teachers will be able to use activities designed around a certain image or create their own activities using an outside source more relatable to their students. In this manner, teachers will be able to tailor the participatory lesson to that particular class. A social sciences teacher may have one period in which 70 percent of the class is Hmong and another period in which 60 percent is black. Instead of a “one-lesson-fits-all” approach, students can analyze, debate, and participate in activities provided by DocsTeach that are specific to their information needs and feel represented in the lesson of the day. Even if the image chosen for this activity is not reflective of all students in this class, all students and teachers will benefit from learning more about another culture’s traditions and history within the context of the course.
In a piece about the required teaching of our country’s founding documents, Jenny Sweeney writes, “The National Archives has a treasure trove of materials related to the Constitution and its amendments” (2019). She goes on to explain how these tools are especially handy for designing lesson plans and ideal for remote learning.
Inspiration
DocsTeach takes students out of the textbooks and into a world they can magnify and scrutinize. As free members, instructors will have access to more than 1,800 activities and 12,529 primary sources. The technology is here for students to engage with their teachers through the activities and give their opinions about what they see before them on the screen. These activities will make students feel important. Stephens writes in the Heart of Librarianship, “Technology extends human reach but participation requires engaged participants who feel welcome, comfortable, and valued” (2016).
With DocsTeach, teachers and students will have a new “textbook” every day if they so choose. “Implementing a model for constant change and user participation, both of which are multifaceted components of Library 2.0, will enable libraries to . . . reach those users they haven’t been able to reach,” explains Casey and Savastinuk (2007). DocsTeach will reach students who have challenges learning in a traditional school setting. “Overall, research has shown that access to digitized primary sources increases engagement in history by making the study of history more relevant and impactful to students” argues Rinder in his 2020 thesis in which he analyzes the effectiveness of DocsTeach. “(DocsTeach’s) integration of technology also has the means of engaging individuals and fostering a positive perception of history” (Rinder, 2020).
“Students can work on activities that support critical and higher-order thinking and complete them at school or home, anytime and anywhere,” explains Schantz in her review of the newly renovated program (2019).
Guidelines
School principals will verify that all SCUSD social science instruction will include some use of DocsTeach
Use of DocsTeach in the classroom should be implemented in the 2024/2025 school year and beyond
Demonstrate to school principals evidence of this implementation in lesson plans
Be prepared to evaluate the successes and challenges of this new learning tool at administrative meetings addressing social science programs
Timeline
Instructors and students can begin implementation of this resource immediately. It is free to use and all of the resources are in the public domain. There is no anticipated push back from the school district’s board or school administrators considering there will be no fiscal impact and also considering the activities and images are from a National Archives not-for-profit educational program.
Marketing
It will be important for school principals to share the DocsTeach website and require this tool be a part of the curriculum. To maintain consistency throughout the district, all SCUSD teachers should make every effort to include these activities in their lesson plans.
The most challenging part of any innovation in the classroom is convincing teachers who are stuck in their ways (“we’ve always done it this way”) to adopt a new lesson into their plans. After watching a few free webinars on the website and reviewing the dizzying array of documents, photographs, and maps, even the most grizzled and hardened social studies teacher should see the benefit of this newly revamped, interactive, and free curriculum.
Staff training
Teachers and administrators can begin watching the more than a dozen mini webinars immediately to begin training in DocsTeach. Teachers will learn during these 20-minute lessons how to find and share primary source documents, choose or modify activities to meet their students information needs, create their own activity, how to lead an activity remotely, and more. These lessons, designed with educators in mind, are easy to navigate on the website.
Evaluation or expansion
This program can be evaluated by instructors and administrators alike using the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) 2024 standards. These standards include the empowered learner (1.1), digital citizen (1.2), knowledge constructor (1.3), and creative communicator (1.6). According to the ITSE, an empowered learner “can choose how they will learn by selecting the documents they will analyze and sharing them with other students” and students become their own “knowledge constructor” when they “can use this tool to research and curate primary sources related to a given subject and select the documents that are more relevant to their own learning experience” (2024).
The possibilities for expansion would involve using DocsTeach in the school library, with a dedicated computer made available for students to use to explore the website on their own and learn about artifacts and documents outside of their prescribed lessons. A field trip to Washington, D.C. is a few clicks away as, ” Students from all around the globe can research and analyze primary sources from the National Archives without the financial burden of visiting this institution in Washington, DC.,” reports Ana Schantz when she analyzed DocsTeach for EdTech Books (n.d.).
DocsTeach is a free and easy way for all SCUSD students to adopt Michael Stephen’s mantra “Follow your curiosity” (2016).
A couple of years ago, the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) introduced school kids to the world of archives and exhibit building through a program called Kids Collect. The archivists at the center showed inclusion and heart when they took the time to help Hmong children find or create artifacts reflecting their culture for an exhibit on display at city hall. Sacramento boasts the third largest Hmong population in the nation and CSH’s chosen school, Susan B. Anthony Elementary School, maintains a dual-language immersion program for their students (CSH, n.d.).
“Different styles of Hmong clothes can help people recognize who you are and what clan you belong to” – Madyson Vang, 5th grade (Sacramento City Express, 2023).
“To see Hmong traditional clothing and culturally significant artifacts be celebrated in Sacramento City Hall brings me such joy and pride for our community and our city,” said Vang, the City’s first Hmong-American council member. “I am especially proud of our Susan B. Anthony Elementary School students who put together such a powerful and inspirational exhibit. Their personal stories and experiences are truly empowering and representative of the immense diversity of our city. Understanding our past and learning about different cultures helps us build a better city where all communities can feel like they belong” (Sacramento City Express, 2023).
Fifth grader, Silvia Xiong described her grandmother’s red bracelet as an “artifact that represents me” (CSH, n.d.). Silvia felt included; she hopefully felt seen by a city and an information center she knew nothing about until those archivists showed up at her school.
The Society of American Archivists (SAA) encourages its members to “embrace the importance of identifying, preserving, and working with communities to actively document those whose voices have been overlooked or marginalized” (SAA, n.d.). The Hmong community in the United States is primarily here due to forced migration after the Vietnam War. Many Hmong are refugees or descended from refugees and are considered to have “greater health and mental health risks (e.g. hypertension, depression, etc.) and a higher poverty rate than any Asian population in the United States” (Im, 2021).
The CSH’s choice was no mistake. Those children were chosen for a reason. The center identified a marginalized community in Sacramento and welcomed them to share their stories with the entire city. Loida Garcia-Febo encouraged librarians to “embed humanity, compassion, empathy, awareness, and understanding” into their programs and this CSH outreach program embodied this call to action (2018). These archivists demonstrated to these kids and parents through heart-centered outreach that history is not just about a bunch of dead white guys. History is about themselves, their parents, grandparents, and cherished artifacts that they provided Sacramentans the privilege of seeing at city hall.
Christian Laursen argued in his keynote talk that libraries “should be leaders in promoting inclusion” (2018). I would wager that he would include archives in this endeavor as well!
Im, H. (2021). Falling through the cracks: Stress and coping in migration and resettlement among marginalized Hmong refugee families in the United States. Families in Society, 102(1), pp. 50–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1044389420901393
Who goes to the library anymore? Aren’t we all hyperlinked by now? It’s 2024 for crying out loud.
Not so fast. American Library Association numbers are showing an increased use of physical library services by Generation Z and millennials (it’s cute; they get dressed up, post it on TikTok) and the poor and unhoused have never really had the luxury of such a privileged choice (ALA, 2024).
The population of those experiencing homelessness and poverty seems to be ever-growing in our cities and towns, and these people and their families face challenges when it comes to using online library services. They may have limited access to the internet, if any access at all, so they depend upon the traditional service of borrowing physical books, music, movies, and other media.
They may also want to use the physical library for access to the internet to search for jobs and/or services. Perhaps they just need a warm place to hang out. The threat of fees, or worse being reported to a collections agency, for not returning items looms greater for these families and individuals. Bottom line: they need and use the physical library more than the rest of the population, move more often increasing the chances of losing a book, and do not have the money to pay late fees. So whether it is simply signage warning of the repercussions for not returning items or past experience with not paying fees, patrons who need the services the most are the ones most dissuaded from using library services because of these threats (ALA, 2024).
Many libraries came to this realization years ago or during the pandemic, with some libraries now claiming to be “fee free.” However, they continue to send patrons to collections agencies for not returning items or paying the replacement cost after a certain period of time.
Oh yeah, that’s right, collections agencies! I know because I received a collections notice for each of my daughters years ago from the Sacramento Public Library. Since then (early 2000s) they have greatly increased the number of renewal opportunities before they finally threaten to ruin your credit.
An undated letter from Unique. (Hogan, 2019)
While the collections agency most often used, Unique Management Company, does not actually refer the library degenerate to a credit reporting firm, most patrons and their parents are not aware of this and assume their credit will be tarnished. What springs to mind for you when you see the word “collections” at the top of a letter or uttered by a clangy robot voice through the phone?Something else tarnished is the patron’s view of the library after getting a collections letter. Sifton argues, “. . . regardless of who generates the notice, or who calls at night, the effect on patrons is the same: a negative view of the library, and decreased use of its services” (2009).
By the way, Unique collections agency is no joke, they have managed to glean over a billion dollars from angry parents, kids who have had to give their piggy banks the shake down, and students desperately needing their online account to be unlocked (Unique, 2024). You should check out their website; they are really excited about it. Take special note of their “Gentle NudgeⓇ Material Recovery” program (yeah, they had it trademarked).
That’s great right? More money for the libraries right? Firstly, sometimes that money does not go to the library, but instead to the city’s general fund, or is an infinitesimal part of the budget (Sacramento Public Library Authority, 2022). As an example, fees collected at the Sacramento Public Library only accounted for a small portion of 3.8 percent of the total 2022 budget. Did you get that? Only a portion of 3.8 percent. For most American public libraries fines typically account for less than one percent of the library’s budget (Chung, 2021).
*The remaining 3.8% of funding comes from fees, investment earnings, Galleria revenues, Central distribution and donations.(Sacramento Public Library Authority, 2022)
Secondly, at what expense are the libraries chasing down these dollars? ALA has urged libraries “to scrutinize their practices of imposing fines on library patrons and actively move toward eliminating them” (Hill, 2019). “The American Library Association, in an official statement, has characterized library fines as a ‘form of social inequity’” (Hill, 2019).
Here is the most recent breakdown of how this affects those who are poor or unhoused from ALA’s website. Take a gander at the second reason listed.
Equity of Access Issues for People Experiencing Poverty or Homelessness
From illiteracy and illness to hunger and discrimination, there are many barriers that can potentially inhibit library service and disallow poor and homeless people from full access to library services.
People experiencing poverty or homelessness may be limited or prohibited by many issues, including:
Library card or access policies requiring a permanent address
Prohibitive fines, fees or other penalties or the perception that services incur fees
Staff who are not trained in service to people who are poor or homeless or who are made uncomfortable by prejudices against people who are poor or homeless
Limited promotion at the community centers and organizations (food banks, shelters, after-school programs) which serve people experiencing poverty or homelessness
Limited access to the library building by either limited means of transportation or service hours
Lack of programs or resources that address people’s experiences or current situations
(ALA, 2024)
Some promising signs are emerging as one of the most prominent public library systems in the country, New York Public Library, changed its policy in 2021 to eliminate “late fines.” They will still charge you replacement costs however (sneaky). While it is not made clear on NYPL’s webpage regarding fees if they severed their relationship with Unique Management, Bonnie of Unique Management confirmed with this author, via phone, that they no longer hold a contract with NYPL. No more collections agencies for NYPL but they aren’t “fee free.” Replacement fees are to be made directly to the library or accounts will be blocked. (NYPL, 2024).
“The goals of this major policy shift include encouraging increased usage of the library systems, as well as creating a more equitable system that does not disproportionately impact high-need communities,” reads a 2021 NYPL press release. Sorry NYPL, you are still impacting people who move around frequently. My daughters moved between their two parents’ homes and often lost library books. Imagine those without my daughters’ resources and support? I doubt tracking down a CD or book is on top of mind for those who were recently evicted or sleeping every night on a subway bench.
This shift at NYPL, as small as it was, may have been partly in response to city council pressure and a 2019 National Public Radio piece. New York City council member Van Bramer argued that, “using a collection agency is contrary to the values espoused by New York Public Library and . . . should end their contracts with this company (Unique)” (Hogan, 2019).
In conclusion, there are grounds for all libraries in good faith, and in an effort to align themselves with Reference and User Services Association (RUSA, 2023) guidelines on inclusion, to stop referring errant patrons to collections agencies and/or end their entire fee program. This proposal may offend those working in libraries who still cling to the mantra, “We’ve always done it this way” addressed in this course’s The Hyperlinked Library lecture. This is a concept Wacek discussed in her TED talk regarding the doing away with all fines. “Study after study has shown that the reason libraries fine is because of strongly held beliefs about the effectiveness of getting materials back on time backed by no evidence,” shares Wacek. “Basically we fine, because we’ve always fined (2018).
If libraries really want to back up their commitment to being “fee free” how about they do just that? Library patrons who have the greatest need deserve to enjoy library services without living in fear. Chung alleges in his account of the damage library fees incur, “The library budget may find itself with a little less, but it is a small price to pay in exchange for a more positive service environment” (2021). Collection agencies are scary, intimidating, and not in line with current ALA and RUSA guidelines even if they do claim to be unique.
Equitable access touted by ALA, RUSA, and the down-in-the-trenches information professionals are just words until libraries eliminate all fees, the threat of fees, and the empty scare tactics of collection agencies.
Hey everyone! My name is Emily Mizokami and I am having finding this Master’s program challenging and exciting! I still can’t believe that just a year ago I had not even the slightest thought of returning to school, looking for internships, and dreaming of a completely different career. Well, any career really, as I have never had one. When you go so long without something, you truly cherish it when you get it back. I loved the academic world and I am so happy to be back!
I graduated college with a degree in politics from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1997, flailed around for a bit, and finally resigned myself to the chains of retail. I won’t name where I work or you will start to leave all the names of your favorite products in the comments. Let’s just say we have a playful nautical theme and are known for the best parking lots around!
Anywhose, a bad back is pushing me out of this job and I’ve decided to embrace my love of books, organization, and history and pursue a career in archives. I am a student assistant at the Center of Sacramento History and a first-year student in the MLIS program. I am hoping to push myself this semester and branch out more by adding various media to my blog posts this semester, such as videos and podcasts.
I have two ancient children, aged 23 and 20, and an extremely understanding husband who encourages me often to keep going and make this dream come true!
Here is a picture of me after discovering a series of little blue elephants along a beach trail near San Luis Obispo. There was no explanation, just a deliberate placement of little blue plastic elephants. Isn’t life wonderful and strange?
, and an extremely understanding husband who encourages me often to keep going and make this dream come true!