I am a big fan of looking at things through the lens of community. For my information communities class, I zeroed in on the information needs of folks experiencing homelessness. I found that many people experiencing homelessness look for information regarding essential needs like food and employment. Almost equal to vital resources, folks look to meet recreational needs like catching up shows on a library computer. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to survive and have some fun while we do it.

Looking at this module’s materials, I was most intrigued by resources provided to parents and their children. As a child who grew up spending a lot of time in laundromats, I immediately recognized the logos on the washing machines shown in the “Wash & Learn Library Pop-Up Library Program” video. I also had a visceral response to the sign on the laundromat wall emphasizing that no playing was allowed. I grew up incredibly low-income to a single, immigrant mom. For most of my life, we did not have a consistent and accessible mode of transportation. My siblings and I went everywhere with my mom, laundromat included. We spent hours upon hours at the laundromat every week without the opportunity to leave and enclosed in a tiny, enclosed space that was not play friendly. For Wash & Learn to have youth from their own community provide access to information and resources is incredibly brilliant. Not only do they understand their community best, but they are also safe and credible hyperlinks. Further, just because someone is not in the physical building of a library does not mean they could not benefit from the library’s resources. It may mean there are some barriers in place, whether it be time, awareness, etc. The youth in this program remove so many barriers and meet people where they are at. I like that this is a mutually flourishing program, youth connect and learn from one another while community members learn about resources.

As a new parent that works while in school, the initiative highlighted in the Libraries in Balance section of Wholehearted Librarianship felt like a soft balm on my tired, overworked mom head and heart. To further promote kindness in a New Zealand academic library, “student parents are allowed to bring their children because childcare is a barrier to studying” (Stephens, 2019). From New Zealand to the United States, childcare is a huge barrier. I have very limited childcare because the hourly rate is higher than my current position’s hourly rate.I currently do schoolwork only after completing a full workday followed by my child’s bedtime routine. Many times, this means I am doing schoolwork in the middle of the night, a few hours before getting up to get ready for work. If I could comfortably bring my child to a shared space and get work done, that would be a game changer. This is true for me and so many other single moms I know. So many parents want to go back to school to be able to provide more opportunities to their children, but the barriers are endless and exhausting.

To connect the Wash & Learn program and the New Zealand academic library’s kindness initiative, A Beautiful Obsession synthesizes efforts in a beautiful way. David Lankes states, “Our buildings, our books, our services, our catalogs must not be channels of assistance we provide, but part of a powerful platform that enables our communities to success” (Pewrainangi, 2014). The library community, whether in a laundromat or a physical library building, is a platform for hyperlinks connecting us to promote success. I believe that all flourishing is mutual, just like I am trying my best to provide for my nine-month-old son as a library staff member, so is the mom at the Wash & Laundromat with her one-year-old son. We are better for connecting to one another and providing essential and recreational opportunities to survive and hopefully have some fun while we do so.

My nine-month-old son, Alex, and I in the children’s area of our local library.

References:

Bibliothèques Sans Frontières. (2017, October 11). “Wash & learn” pop-up library program in the Bronx [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HM7pQiqDZY&t=2s

Pewrainangi, S. (2014). A Beautiful Obsession.

Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted librarianship: Finding hope, inspiration, and balance. ALA Editions.