Serious Mental Illness, Public Libraries, and the Role of Homelessness: Understanding Public Librarians' Interests

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the perceptions that public librarians have of their user populations with regard to people who are experiencing serious mental illness and the relationship to homelessness. Library association email listservs from multiple states across the U.S. distributed a questionnaire to their members that addressed these topics. The results found that a large number of public librarians experience concerns about violence in these populations and the impact that the presence of such users upon other users. Public librarians would be interested in learning more about serious mental illness with the goal that awareness about serious mental illness would help them in their interaction with library users who are experiencing serious mental illness. They expressed openness to trainings about serious mental illness. Such trainings would include liaisons with community agencies that work to help who are experiencing serious mental illness.Master of Science in Library Scienc