Supporting patrons experience homelessness, extreme poverty, and high mobility

April 2016

The purpose of this research was to determine how web technology impacts user experiences in libraries for often overlooked groups of people. For ease of describing these audiences, I will be grouping users experiencing homelessness, extreme poverty, and high mobility (such as teens couch hopping) as the "disenfranchised". This loosely ties in those who are experiencing physical and mental accessibility concerns.

This is a slightly modified version of an internal proposal for the library-built catalog so does not cover the full spectrum of modifications that could be made to improve the online catalog experience. I may come back to edit this so the concepts and ideas are more flushed out.

Research summary

Disenfranchised users often have mobile devices and use them as a primary source of data and communication. They are likely going through traumatic and stressful points in their lives.

Chronic homelessness in the U.S. is a very small percentage (7.3%); many who are experiencing homelessness are in a temporary situation and working to get back into a home. See The State of Homelessness in America report for more details.

Based on a survey conducted by Silicon Valley-based Community Technology Alliance in March 2013, 69% of low income and unsheltered people (498 surveyed) owned a mobile phone, and of that 54% had data access.

A study from 2011 surveyed 169 homeless youth in Los Angeles and found that 62% had a mobile phone.

A fantastic study done in San Diego looked into plans as well and found most mobile phones were prepaid with unlimited text and talk. Cricket was the carrier of choice likely due to its physical proximity (physical locations), which offers a basic plan at $40 monthly with 2.5GB data plan. According to Cricket's phone plans, data access can start at 4G speeds but are reduced to 128Kbps when the allowance is used up.

>According to the Census Bureau, those in near poverty have these demographics: they have less than a high school education, more women than men, they are predominantly black and young (under 18).

Minnesota saw a 6% increase of homelessness in 2013. The Wilder report from 2012 (focusing on Minnesota specifically) identified that 42% of homeless adults are white and 38% are black. Most (77%) that are 18 and older have a high school diploma or GED. Violence is often associated with homelessness, either experienced before (as a cause) or during (almost 20% were physically or sexually assaulted). For youth, a common cause is sexual orientation (around 40% for 18-22 year olds). Eviction is the primary cause for homelessness (38%), followed by reduced hours at work.

Technology considerations

One noticeable theme is that many of the recommended features also improve the experience for the general public, so while they should benefit this specific audience greatly, many of these would be beneficial to implement in general.

Search

Change the catalog to keyword based querying, allowing for more natural language queries. This shift makes content more accessible to a wider audiences, specifically impacting those with fewer means and/or less education.

Performance

The experience of library catalogs on mobile devices has been often cited by users as undesirable for several reasons including lack of a well-designed responsive layout. Especially ignored is the problem with limited data plans.

Extending access (additional considerations)

Larger projects to implement that would increase visibility and provide ease for our more diverse users would include globalization and Linked Data efforts.

References