#plinterns17

This is my first week working on the weekend. It’s pretty laid back, there aren’t quite as many people here right now as there would be on a normal day. This week has been pretty chill. I missed Tuesday, because I was at a funeral. The AARC (where I work) is being moved downstairs to make room for a maker-space. 

As promised, I have completed both influential tasks at the library. 

This morning I spent a very informative hour on the porch of the library listening to people without a permanent residences talking about random artists and history. I only interviewed two people, which may not seem like a lot, but is impressive for me because I don’t talk to strangers ever. 

From this experience I learned a lot. For example, people don’t need an incentive to talk to you. I did not end up giving out gift packages because I felt like I was bribing them and many of them had access to food and other materials. 

The first person I talked to was retired. He comes to the library every day. He said that he thought that the library as a whole was very convenient, except for the bathrooms. I really can’t do anything about the status of the bathrooms. He said he feels safe and respected at the library. 

The other man I talked to comes to the library about five times a week and said that his least favorite part of the library was outside. The outside of the library is very bland and putrid, a lot of people without a permanent residence congregate there throughout the day. He also said he does not feel respected by the library staff.

From this experience, I have decided to remove the question about “what is your preferred term to describe your living situation?,” because that could be found patronizing. I also decided I would like to add some room for follow up questions, like why does the second man not feel respected by the library staff. I also would like to add a more abstract question, like “What does the library mean to you?” 

By this time tomorrow, I will have completed both my staff surveys and my under-served population surveys. I packed my bags and I am ready to go, not really. I am incredibly nervous about how this will turn out. 

Thank you guys for your support.

It really means a lot. Tomorrow I will update you about how both went.

Love you.

Dear my loyal readers,

I find the process of updating you on my project (regarding the under served population at the New Orleans Public Library) cathartic. Here are some changes I have made and somethings I have learned.

One major things is I have changed the audience of my survey from specifically the homeless population to the under served population. The basis of this decision is that the lingerers at the library are not necessarily homeless. They could have a home, which is missing an amenity that most of us take for granted such as the AC or wi-fi. This change will hopefully not have an immediate result on the results of my project. 

I have also simplified my survey quite a bit, I realized that my previous survey was pretentious and almost had a judgmental nature about it. I have allowed numerous more professional people review it and give me suggestions on ways I could make it more subtle to the population it is tailored towards. I also deleted irrelevant questions.

Another thing I have learned is that I am passionate about pure programs were the people are genuinely and sincerely interested in what they are doing. As part of preparation for my survey (which has been delayed another week), I met with Shannon from the YMCA. As I waited, I listened to the employees discussing which students would take the literacy test and stuff and there passion really shinned through. I was envious of the immediate effects there work had on the population they served, my survey distanced me from the population I intended to serve. 

I’ve decided that I would prefer to talk to my interviewees to make it more personal. Although the survey itself is more about services that the library could provide to benefit the members of the under served community that frequent the library, I feel like this away for me to connect and and become more in touch with the personal stories of this specific population.

Sincerely,

Dear reader,

I hope you are having a nice day. Generally, I consider any day a good day, until something bad happens. However, that is not relevant today’s discussion. So, before I ramble on about the shortcoming of my day, I think it is a good idea to segue into a more professional mood so I can introduce my project for the heavily mentioned Public Library Association Summer Internship.

To start of I will introduce the basic goal of my project, which is basically to recommend programs for the New Orleans Public Library about what the houseless community really wants. I’m not sure about your local library, but ours is full of houseless people. Since houseless people make up a great deal of the Library’s community, I think it is important to include more programs that benefit them. As you probably have guessed, I am not the voice of houselessness nor can I read their minds. 

My project hinges on whether or not the houseless people would like to fill out my survey in exchange for a care package. The details of both the survey and the care package are unclear. For example, one of my primary questions is beef jerky or no beef jerky. Soap or wet wipes. Deodorant or no deodorant. I have been going through online articles about care packages, which typically are only for one person and can be very expensive.

Originally, I wanted to do more of a psychological analysis of the houseless people at the library. From my understanding, many of the homeless people in this city have mental illnesses and couldn’t afford medication. There are programs that help, but in order to create a bigger impact there needs to be someone in a high office who cares about their well-beings and wants to change what is going on.

 Basically, my hope is that by creating this survey I will be able to help homeless people with things they directly want. Also, I plan to allot space on my survey which will give houseless people the opportunity to tell their story. By doing this, I hope to allow people to see houseless people as more than just a group of people to avoid but make them personal and relate-able. 

Most of the spaces allotted will regard what programs the houseless population like and which they don’t. What resources they use, how often they come in, and what resources they would like to find in the library. Hopefully, I can make the immediate population of houseless people around me better by helping the library help them. Sounds like I am basically doing nothing, huh?

You may ask, you work in a library why are the homeless people even important? They are important because a library is not just a building filled with books, but a community. Our community is houseless people, which may not seem important to you, but the purpose of the library is to provide other with knowledge, to edify, provide a safe haven, and help others with wherever there life takes them. Just because someone doesn’t fit in to the box associated with normality, it doesn’t mean they are not worthy of the same services provided everyone else. 

Additionally, this research, though it is on a small scale, is important because perhaps the library can serve in cleaning up the lives of homeless people (through programs such as the YMCA, which help adults who want to get there GEDs get them) or by preventing homelessness through other programs (which have not been thought of yet).

As a side note, I have always wondered if there is any sage wisdom that comes with being homeless. Do you get a better understanding of the worthlessness of societies trade and enterprise? Do you begin to see people in suits as money sucking vampires rather than rich tailored men? Though I am not religious, I know that Jesus started of as an Ascetic, who gave up his worldly possessions in order to explore the mysteries of the universe. Therefore, I wonder if there is a clairvoyance that comes with homelessness.

Note: Throughout this blog, I switch back and forth between houseless and homeless. I do this because I do not know the proper term to use in order to describe a person who does not have a house. This is a question, which I put on my survey and as soon as I have this information I will let you know. The term houseless is one I learned from my mentor, because she said just because you don’t have a house it doesn’t mean you don’t have a home. I would prefer to not have to use any label at all, but when it comes to certain documents you need to be able to describe the group you are researching.

Thank you for sticking with me through this blog entry of self discovery and summary.

Sincerely,