The Georgia Library Association Carterette Series Webinars presents
Being There for Asylum Seekers and People Experiencing Homelessness and Poverty: How Can Libraries Help?
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
2pm Eastern (11am Pacific | 12pm Mountain | 1pm Central)
Cost: Free
Description: In our roles as providers of free information to asylum seekers, previously incarcerated individuals, English language learners, and the economically disadvantaged, serving children and families can be challenging for libraries. How we think about and describe community members affects our attitudes, our willingness to engage, the assumptions we make, the environment we create and the resources we provide. We will look at language, how intersectionality highlights power differences, and how we can redefine our comfort zones. When disabled students are English Language Learners or unhoused, the barriers they face multiply exponentially. We will examine how libraries can find and support them. Recent spikes in health misinformation and book challenges disproportionally and negatively impact people's access to reproductive and sexual health information as well as period products, which makes public libraries a perfect space for menstrual advocacy. Attendees will leave with specific actions they can take to address the challenges created by hostile and stereotyped assumptions about people who are experiencing homelessness and poverty, asylum seekers, and previously incarcerated individuals and ideas for improving and implementing services that meet the needs of unhoused youth.
About the Presenters:
Carrie Banks After receiving her Masters of Library Science from Queens College in 1990, Carrie Banks has led a career dedicated to inclusivity. Starting in 1997 she has been in charge of Brooklyn Public Library's (BPL) Inclusive Services, responsible for providing services for children and teens with disabilities. Joining in 2000, she is also an active member of the American Library Association's ASGCLA and ALSC divisions, having served in multiple capacities, most notably as president of ASGCLA in 2020. Additionally, Ms. Banks is both a published author and educator. From 2013-2015, she taught Including Youth with Disabilities at Pratt Institute, and her published books include: Including Families of Children with Special Needs: A How to Do It Manual for Librarians (2014), Libraries and Garden: Growing Together, with Cynthia Mediavilla (2019), and Library Programming for Adults with Developmental Disabilities, with Barbara Klipper (2021). Her most current title, Libraries Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline: An Action Guide for Libraries, will be available Spring 2026.
Rakisha Kearns-White is a 2023 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and the 2022 recipient of Brooklyn Public Library’s Dr. Lucille C. Thomas Award for Excellence in Librarianship. She was a young adult librarian for 19 years at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch before being promoted to manager of their Kings Bay branch in 2024. For the past eight years, she has used her platform as a librarian to advocate for menstrual literacy and sexuality education in public libraries, trauma-informed library management, the legitimacy of graphic novels, intellectual freedom, LGBTQ+ friendly library spaces, and making the public library a welcoming and inclusive place for all. Finally, she sits on the executive board of the New York Library Association as the Councilor-at-Large for Public Libraries and as librarian vice president for the Brooklyn Library Guild, union Local 1482.
Julie Ann Winkelstein, PhD, MLIS, is an activist, writer, and teacher who worked as a librarian for over 20 years with direct experience in prisons and jails and has served as a children’s and teen librarian in a public library. She currently teaches a library school course on homelessness, poverty, and libraries at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
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To register for the online event
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1. Go to the registration page: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gboc0LBkRnSDYqwSIj6nYQ
2. Complete and submit the form.
3. A URL for the event will be emailed to you immediately after registration.
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The session will be recorded and available on the Carterette Series Webinars site approximately 1 week after the live program.
Contact a member of the Carterette Series planning team with questions or suggestions:
carteretteserieswebinars@georgialibraryassociation.org
