It’s a national trend — librarians as de facto social workers and even de facto emergency responders.
In Galesburg, it’s no different.
Between May and November, the library saw 88,000 visitors walk through the doors of its new building, an increase of almost 20,000 over the same period last year.
There’s been a gradual increase in social service needs at the library over the past several years, from people needing food and hygiene products to people needing places to sleep.
But Library Director Noelle Thompson said since moving to the new building, the staff is handling a much greater volume and depth of needs — and helping people find the resources they need falls under the library’s mission of being a center of information.
“Information needs vary greatly person to person,” Thompson said. “So when somebody comes in saying, I need a book on this topic, or somebody comes in saying, I need to know what resources are available to me, our responsibility is to be able to provide information for those services.”
Thompson said the library has strong relationships with Bridgeway and the Salvation Army, and everyone is seeing greater needs in the community right now.
But the new, much larger library building that takes up an entire city block on West Main Street is also part of the increase.
“We are more visible, so people are often finding refuge here. They’re finding us to be a safe space,” Thompson said. “We’ve wanted to be that all along and are going to continue being a safe space, whether that’s people coming in for warmth, people coming in for safety, or people coming in for connection with other friendly faces in the community.”
A space for everyone
The new library is a dream that’s been in the works for decades. With a $15 million construction grant from the Illinois State Library and $4 million raised locally, the new 68,000-square-foot building replaces what was meant to be a temporary location on East Simmons Street after the city’s Carnegie Library burned in 1958.
Thompson said the new library was designed to be a public space for the whole community. That includes the outdoor spaces, like the patio, reading corner, and lockers where people can pick up holds 24 hours a day.
She’s seen people studying outside the library after hours. She’s seen people drinking coffee there in the morning, before the library opens.
And she’s seen unhoused people sleeping outside the new library at night.
“Causing absolutely no disruption to the building, to other community members. And we've been in communication with them trying to find them a better long-term solution. But that space is available to everybody,” she said.
Enforcing library rules
There are rules at the library, and there have been issues in the new space, from stolen bicycles to other thefts.
Thompson said an average of two people a month have been temporarily suspended from the library since the new building opened in late April. That can happen for theft, damaging property, or anything that disrupts anyone else’s ability to use the library safely.
“You’ll occasionally have somebody come in and break a rule and then we'll have to ask them to leave. But for the most part, they've been really respectful of the space and they want to continue using it,” Thompson said.
The library has seen around a 50% increase in reference questions in the new building. When you add in the growing social services demand, Thompson said she’s “blown away” daily by her staff’s compassion and quality of service.
“The commitment to our mission, the commitment to our community, and the understanding that we are dealing with human beings every day,” Thompson said. “Every human being that walks through our doors is going to have different needs, is going to come from a different background, and is going to come with different expectations.”
Still, staff members are trained as librarians, not social workers. Thompson said some things are out of their wheelhouse, and the staff does suffer from compassion fatigue at times.
A social worker from Bridgeway is at the library on Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings to coordinate calls to agencies for people in need. That is funded by Galesburg Community Foundation’s Hunger Collaborative.
But Thompson said because that person is not a library employee, they’re not responsible for enforcing library policies.
So the library has created a safety coordinator position. That person will be the designated point of contact for behavioral disruptions and be responsible for enforcing library policy to keep patrons, staff, and property safe.
That person will also sit down with people in need of help and make calls to other agencies for assistance.
“That's something that like already library staff are doing, but we're kind of balancing it with all of the library work that we're already doing,” Thompson said. “Or it’s getting passed from person to person and a lot of things can fall through the cracks that way.”
A revised budget
The library gets some state and federal support, but 97% of its operating budget comes from property taxes levied by the city.
The library requested a 4.9% levy increase to pay for a safety coordinator and to cover wage increases for librarians who are performing crisis interventions.
In order to not raise the overall property tax rate for Galesburg residents, the city council instead approved a 2.66% levy increase for the library. That amounts to around $42,000 less than the library’s full budget request, but is still a $50,000 increase over last year’s budget.
The increase is going toward personnel, also in part because of minimum wage increases.
Thompson said the library still intends to hire a safety coordinator.
The library board approved a revised budget at its regular meeting Thursday that accounts for the lower than requested property tax levy.
“The revised budget includes funds for a safety coordinator and removes a new librarian position we had hoped to add,” Thompson said. “We will continue seeking additional funding to support the safety coordinator position and to provide additional training for staff.”
The approved budget amount from the levy is $1,945,430.
Thompson said the library operates modestly considering the size of the new building and the size of the community, with fewer staff members than the state recommends.
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