Tyler Davis is the first community resource manager at Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia. He started full time in January, and his job is to connect patrons with health and social support resources.
He spoke about some of the needs he has seen in the community and how he – and the library can help.
Missouri Health Talks gathers Missourians’ stories of access to healthcare in their own words.
Tyler Davis: One of the things that I really love about public libraries is that they're one of the last free spaces that people can exist in and enjoy all sorts of different resources.
Whether you want to learn, whether you want to expand your knowledge on something, you want to play, you want to, you know, read a funny story – the library has something for all people, for all interests.
And so, naturally – as one of those places that is the last free place – we have people that come in that had a lot of unmet social needs.
"A large part of that is also like educating them and kind of helping them figure out, like, 'What would I do next time?'"Tyler Davis
And our librarians are fantastic at doing that kind of like reference information and reference requests.
The reality is that librarians are just not trained, they don't have the time, they don't have the skill set to be able to work really kind of intimately and personally with the patrons that are here to help them overcome life challenges.
They are really good at kind of going out and finding information for people, gathering it and then bringing it back to them, and for some people, that's not enough. Some people need a little bit more.
And so, that's where the social workers come in, where I come in.
You know, I say all the time to people that even with all of my education and experience, I still have a really hard time, sometimes, navigating the social service system.
I have a hard time, you know, making sure that my prescriptions get paid for, making sure that, you know, I don't have this egregious bill from my doctor's office or the hospital.
And so, people that do not have experience working in the social service system, those people, especially, are going to need a little bit of extra assistance, right?
And, you know, that is also not to speak to all of the barriers that are put in front of people to access care. Not to mention things like trauma and things like lack of education, lack of health literacy.
You know, these things all require people to have a little bit more of an extra hand than just, you know, kind of pointing them in the direction and then expecting them to go do it all on their own.
"Whether you want to learn, whether you want to expand your knowledge on something – the library has something for all people."Tyler Davis
And a large part of that is also like educating them and kind of helping them figure out, like, “What would I do next time?” you know, “This time I have the support here at the library, but if I face this challenge again, what would I do?”
And so, kind of empowering them to do some of that work on their own in the future, but also being willing to do whatever is needed now to make sure that they get that solid connection.
This organization exists because people need help. People need an extra hand. People need a little bit more information. They need a little bit more help. And that's what we're here to do.
And so, you know, I see – you know, on some days, I'll see between 10 and 15 people. They're asking for help from with anything from, you know, making sure that their basic needs are met, to, you know, how do I apply for Social Security for the first time? “I'm getting ready to retire,” you know?
So, there’s all sorts of different needs that people have, and, you know, we recognize that, frankly, sometimes people have challenges that maybe we don't understand, and so, we just want to be here to help them with whatever that need is.
