The Problem Is Poverty | Blatant Berry
Shake the view that service to the poor is a gift from above... John N. Berry III Jun 15, 2011Sanford Berman is American librarianship’s first and leading champion of library service to the poor and homeless, as Steve Lilienthal points out (“The Problem Is Not the Homeless”). Decades ago, Berman worked with the Minnesota Library Association’s Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) to develop a strong resolution on library service to the poor and homeless. It was passed in Minnesota, and they took it to the American Library Association (ALA) conference that year, where it was made a policy of ALA, eventually becoming ALA Policy 61.
The policy is a strong one and, like so many ALA pronouncements, asks for much more than most libraries deliver in practice. Part of the opening paragraph of Policy 61 makes the point:
The American Library Association...recognizes the urgent need to respond to the increasing number of poor children, adults, and families in America. These people are affected by a combination of limitations, including illiteracy, illness, social isolation, homelessness, hunger, and discrimination, which hamper the effectiveness of traditional library services. Therefore it is crucial that libraries recognize their role in enabling poor people to participate fully in a democratic society, by utilizing a wide variety of available resources and strategies. Concrete programs of training and development are needed to sensitize and prepare library staff to identify poor people’s needs and deliver relevant services....
Lilienthal’s article made me realize that a talk with Berman was long overdue. I’ve known Sandy for 40 years, and he has taught me plenty. I need the intellectual and ideological renewal and the update on the world that I always get from Berman. I need it all much more often in these impoverished times.
Sandy was ready, as he always is, and generous with the tutorial I needed. He recalled how ALA leaders had tinkered with the policy after it was adopted.
“At first they just rearranged it, made deletions and changes. Then nothing happened for years,” Sandy said. SRRTers John Gehner and Lisa Gieskes revived it and pushed for action. ALA did survey the situation. Karen Venturella compiled and edited her Poor People and Library Services, now through its eighth edition with North Carolina publisher McFarland.
“Direct services to the poor are the easy part,” Berman said. He reminded me that the poor and homeless are not the problems; poverty and the lack of affordable housing are. He said libraries should try to shake their condescending attitudes that service to the poor and homeless is to be delivered as a gift from above.
Library staff must work to build understanding in all people of the reasons for poverty and homelessness. In their collection development schemes, libraries have to strive to get beyond the celebrated and strong academic and scholarly voices like those of Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America) and Michael Harrington (The Other America). Libraries must collect the authentic voices of the poor like those of Welfare Warriors and its publication Mother Warriors Voice and the street newspapers now in every city. Those papers were created to give the poor and homeless a product to sell and a place to air their views. Berman said few libraries collect the authentic words that tell us all what it is like to be poor and what the poor want and need.
Most libraries are still unwilling to give up institutional barriers to access for the poor and homeless, Berman asserted. He cited fines and fees that the poor could simply not afford, or, more important, the unwillingness of many libraries to accept the shelter or the street as an address when a homeless person tries to register for a library card.
“If you are serious about poverty, you have to give up that old saying, ‘the poor will always be with us.’ That idea is not valid. Poverty can be ended,” Berman concluded.
My thanks to Sandy Berman and Steve Lilienthal. If Berman, who is my age, is still engaged in the struggle, then so am I. Sandy straightened me out, once again.
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| John N. Berry III (jberry@mediasourceinc.com) is Editor-at-Large, LJ |
