Seminar in Contemporary Issues - Serving Homeless Patrons In Public Libraries
INFO 281

Kimberli Buckley
E-mail
Office Hours: Virtual, Email instructor to set up a virtual meeting.

What do homeless patrons need? A place to rest, a place to be safe, connections to service providers, and to feel welcome. The library can provide all of this and more.

With homelessness on the rise, many public libraries are serving homeless patrons. This 1-unit course will cover the current state of homelessness, serving homeless patrons at the library, barriers that come up, partnering with organizations, and inclusive programs created for homeless patrons.

Expectations

Students are expected to participate fully in all class activities. It is expected that students will be open-minded and participate fully in discussions in class and debate in a mature and respectful manner. Use of derogatory, condescending, or offensive language including profanity is prohibited. Disagreement is healthy and perfectly acceptable. Expressing disagreement should always include an explanation of your reasoning and, whenever possible, evidence to support your position. In accordance with San José State University's Policies, the Student Code of Conduct, and applicable state and federal laws, discrimination based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability is prohibited in any form.

Course Workload

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group; contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes) Supported

INFO 281 supports the following core competencies:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify the challenges that patrons experience during homelessness and use this information to discuss issues of working with homeless patrons in the public library in order to develop concepts on engaging and interacting in a positive manner.
2. Analyze and research statistics related to homelessness due to health, housing, and economic issues, and apply social theories as a way to understand these issues and causes of homelessness.
3. Develop a list of partners and service providers in support of homeless patrons.
4. Discuss homeless engagement programs, outreach at homeless shelters, and promoting homelessness awareness in the community.

Textbooks

Recommended Textbooks:

• Burnes, D., & DiLeo, D. (Eds.). (2019). Ending homelessness: Why we haven't, how we can. Lynne Rennier Publishers Inc. Available through Amazon: 1626375070

• Dowd, R. (2018). The librarian's guide to homelessness: An empathy-driven approach to solving problems, preventing conflict, and serving everyone. ALA Editions. Available through Amazon: 0838916260

• Winklestein, J. (2021). Libraries and homelessness: An action guide . Libraries Unlimited. Available through Amazon: 1440862788.

Assignments & Discussions

There are no required textbooks for this course. The books that are mentioned in the textbook section are recommended only. Students do not have to purchase these books for the class, and they are essentially not used in the course, just for additional reference on the course topic. There will be a total of 5 discussions,1 assignment, and a final project. Discussions include watching short videos, watching one full-length movie in week 2, and several readings will also be assigned each week.

Discussions - This course requires weekly reflective discussions based on various topics related to homelessness and public libraries and will be supported by course materials, lectures, and readings. Each discussion entails reading all the posts in the discussion, answering the topic question, and replying to at least two other students' posts. Points will be awarded based on the quality and extent of participation.

For the Week 2 Discussion, students will watch the movie The Public, written and directed by Emilio Estevez. The Public is available to stream on many different platforms. After watching the movie, students will report on the discussion board their thoughts and will share on the discussion board a minimum of 300 words. Students will also reply to two other students’ posts on this topic.

Final Project - Students will create an inclusive collection of Young Adult or Middle-Grade books that feature a character who is unhoused or has food insecurity, has lost their home, or is living in poverty (runaways count as well). Choose no more than 10 titles. Create a slideshow presentation with one slide per book title. On each slide give a short description of the book and share why you chose the book. Students can use PowerPoint, Canva, Prezi, Tik Tok, etc...

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

Per University Policy S16-9 (PDF), relevant university policy concerning all courses, such as student responsibilities, academic integrity, accommodations, dropping and adding, consent for recording of class, etc. and available student services (e.g. learning assistance, counseling, and other resources) are listed on the Syllabus Information web page. Make sure to visit this page to review and be aware of these university policies and resources.