Yes, you are reading that correctly. The San Francisco Public Library has added a social worker to their payroll. A recent article describes the recent addition to the staff. The main library branch has a lot of homeless patrons. The library partnered with the local public help agency to add a social worker.
The director of the library says the library is “the most democratic institute” and they want it to “be open to evevryone”.
Wow!!! How can libraries adapt and adopt such a bold move? What else can we do? How else can we partner and collaborate with? I am so proud to be a librarian.
Three cheers to you SFPL! You all are true information activists!
The Information Activist Librarian 
Three cheers? Unstated in the article, the move and the hiring of another person to monitor the bathrooms was necessitated by a refusal to use Internet filters in a legal fashion to reduce the attraction unfiltered computers has on certain parts of the community.
Now they have a bathroom archivist.
Archivist or activist? I’m not really clear how internet filters would have a profound impact on bathroom usage.
Without going into detail, there are numerous crimes against children that occur in public library bathrooms resulting at least in part from people viewing pornography on unfiltered computers. From my years of watching the news on the issue, the link between unfiltered computers and bathroom crimes is solid.
Activist.
Dan,
Thank you for your response. As a librarian, I tried to find any information linking unfiltered computer usage in public libraries and crimes committed against children within the library. I could not find anything, but I would be interested to see the research you have conducted on the topic.
-Infoactivist
Well, off the top of my head, there’s the child molestation in the Des Moines public library; the child left for dead in the Philadelphia public library; the St Paul public library; the retarded girl raped in the Brooklyn NY public library-porn is allowed but no direct connection was noted in the media so I am not sure I can include this; the numerous incidents in the Chicago public library which, by the way, the library covered up, and the numerous incidents in the public library in California where Jane Light is the library director, eh, that’s it for the top of my head.
However, I track a lot of this here: http://delicious.com/plan2succeed – as you know select the tags that are relevant. Like try this: http://delicious.com/plan2succeed/bathroom or perhaps this: http://delicious.com/plan2succeed/bathroom+rape
See also: http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-child-assaulted-per-month-in.html