The Carnegie Carnegie welcomes social work intern McKay Brooks

As we move into the colder months, many of our friends and neighbors are facing challenging times.

The long shutdown of the federal government led to a great deal of confusion and uncertainty, especially for public employees and people who rely on the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Prices continue to rise, social services are disappearing, and more and more people are barely scraping by.

At the Carnegie Carnegie, we’ve always known the importance of helping our community navigate through difficulties like these.

Library staff help people fill out applications for unemployment and benefits; we direct people to free local food pantries and connect them with free legal advice and housing resources. Our staff always exhibit care, understanding and nonjudgment when we help with this kind of work.

But even so, librarians aren’t trained as social workers. We have expertise in information seeking, the publishing world, developing community partnerships, and many other areas. For a patron in need, though, there’s no substitute for meeting with someone with true professional expertise in social support.

That’s why we’re so grateful that we’re able to participate in the Library Social Work Fellowship, a partnership of the University of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County Library Association.

Since 2022, we’ve been fortunate to work with a succession of four wonderful students from Pitt’s Master of Social Work program. Our social work interns have planned job fairs, conducted outreach to under-served populations and met with countless individual patrons to help them with everything from mental health, addiction and employment to child care, food access and basic necessities.

This year, I’m pleased to introduce our social work intern for the 2025-26 academic year. McKay Brooks has been with the library for a few weeks now, and we’re thrilled to have him as part of our team.

McKay introduces himself in his own words:

“Hello! I’m McKay Brooks. I’m originally from Utah, but I’m here in Pittsburgh for the master’s in social work program at the University of Pittsburgh. While I was completing my bachelor’s degree, I learned that I really wanted to help people solve the problems keeping them from doing the things they love, and that an MSW was what I needed to be able to do that professionally.

“When I found out Pittsburgh has one of the best programs for social work in the country, I had to apply for it. I was lucky enough to get into the program and have been luckier to do my placement here at Carnegie Carnegie.

“I’ve loved riding the river trails and getting to meet people in Pittsburgh and Carnegie. I usually relax by playing video games or reading books and manga. I’m finishing The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson right now, and cannot recommend the series to enough.

“If you need book or game recommendations, or help getting assistance with things like employment, housing, food and more, you can call or email the library to schedule an appointment with me on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.”

Call the Library at 412-276-3456 or email McKay at brooksm@carnegiecarnegie.org to request an appointment.