RACINE, Wis. — It’s a rare sight to see Ashley Cedeno work in her office.

As the Racine Public Library social worker, she’s always on the move. 

“I come into the office in the mornings,” said Cedeno. “I check my emails to make sure nothing is time sensitive that I need to reply to. After that, I’m typically on the second floor just doing rounds or helping at the reference desk. Basically, waiting for people who come with social service questions or needs. Then at that point I book them a study room and then I get them connected to those services.”

A library social worker helps patrons access different resources in the community. 

“Helping someone make a resume so they can apply for a job or helping someone fill out applications for housing,” said Cedeno. “If someone comes in with a quick, ‘I need to access to a food bank or homeless shelter.’ Sometimes it’s a quick hand-off of just here’s the resource or sometimes it’s just sitting in an office for an hour and going through the ins and outs of their situation.” 

Cedeno said she has helped more than 1,000 patrons of the library. She’s even connected with dozens of community partners, including the American Heart Association. 

“Bringing in a blood pressure monitor to the library so folks can check their blood pressure here,” said Cedeno. “Along with lots of information and education around that, we built some blood pressure kits so people can take home a blood pressure monitor.” 

She said having a social worker in a library setting is beneficial to those needing further assistance. That’s why the library has connected with Carthage College to help bring in interns. 

Debbie Minsky-Kelly is a field director and clinical assistant professor of social work at Carthage College. She assisted the Racine and Kenosha Public Libraries with social work internship models.  

“What librarians were seeing was that there was an increasing number of patron requests that were evolving to be a little bit beyond the expertise of librarians,” said Minsky-Kelly.

Both Minsky-Kelly and Cedeno are hopeful more libraries across the state will add this service. 

“It’s steadily increasing, but it’s not enough where it’s expected or known that every library has a social worker, which they don’t. I’m a huge advocate for that. More libraries should have a social worker,” said Cedeno.

She said it’s important for community members to have a safe place to go to get help and the resources they need.

The San Francisco Public Library created the first dedicated full-time social worker in 2009, according to the National Library of Medicine.