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Public libraries are adding social workers to staff as a way of improving their response to the social services needs of library users. This case study of how one public library system undertook to hire a social worker and integrate the position into the life of the library follows the results of this undertaking for roughly 18 months, utilizing semi-structured interviews and corroborating findings with official documentation on the library's website and other documents provided directly by participants. Abbott's system of professions provides the theoretical framework for this case study, which also asks about the potential impact of social work on the profession of librarianship. Overall, participants are very satisfied with the social worker position, even though her defined duties are narrow. This study adds to the knowledge of how social workers are being embedded in libraries and provides needed insights into implications for librarianship as a profession. • Case study examines the integration of a social worker into a public library system. • The impact of public library social workers on the profession of librarianship is not clear. • User issues are housing and food insecurity, unemployment, and other benefits such as Medicaid and Social Security. • Main benefits to librarians when a social worker is available are not having to deal with "hard" stories and time saved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Child welfare workers primarily use email, text, and phone for communication. • Perceived comfort with a technology predicts use in the field. • Experience sampling method is useful for quantifying subjective experience. • Child welfare workers find the technology they use comfortable and useful. • Discomfort was most common talking with caregivers over the phone. This study explores information and communication technology (ICT) use among rural child welfare workers. The experience sampling method (ESM) was used to collect data at five random times a day for one week from ten welfare workers. Workers reported using email, text messaging, or phone almost exclusively in their day-to-day work lives. This study demonstrates the usefulness of ESM in capturing the nuances of technology use in the day-to-day work lives of child welfare workers. Results highlight the need for agencies to explore the use of new types of ICT that may improve efficiency and expand opportunities for client contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]