Help in history: A triumphant library story

Derrick Patterson entered Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library more than three years ago as a homeless, special-needs adult who happened to love history.

A librarian probably asked him what the staff is trained to say: "May I help you?"

Turns out, Derrick and the library would help each other in extraordinary ways.

This month, Patterson received a national honor -- the Daily Point of Light Award -- from the Points of Light Foundation that promotes voluntarism.

For more than three years, the soft-spoken 31-year-old has volunteered five days a week at the library's fourth-floor History Department.

He sorts books, putting them in order on the rolling book cart. His work allows the staff to quickly shelve books that have been returned, repaired or just purchased. He also files newspaper microfilm several times daily.

"I'm very appreciative about that,'' the soft-spoken Patterson says of the Point of Light honor established by President George H.W. Bush. He's too modest or shy to elaborate.

"He's been tremendously helpful to us,'' History Department manager Wayne Dowdy says. "He's become an important part of this department.''

But Dowdy is modest, too. Only after being pressed does the historian and author of six books -- including "On this Day in Memphis History'' -- reveal his own special response to Derrick's library visits.

Presidents and states

Derrick became a library regular, a familiar face. Dowdy and he gradually progressed to conversations beyond the daily greetings.

"I talked to him and found he had all this knowledge about the presidents, about the states,'' Dowdy recalls. Derrick had memorized the order of the states entering the Union and all the presidents.

"I thought that if he can keep up with when the states came into the Union then he can put books in order. So I asked him if he would like to volunteer,'' Dowdy says. "He said, 'Oh yeah, I'd love to do that.' ''

A fistful of candy

Derrick helped out steadily at the library and started opening up as his comfort level rose. One day he slipped Dowdy a piece of paper with his email address and shyly asked the manager to email him some time.

They started exchanging emails as well as talking at work. Dowdy eventually learned that Derrick lived with his father out of a car. When they had money, the pair might stay a while in an extended-stay hotel.

One Halloween, Dowdy brought small sacks of candy for the history staff and Derrick. Later, Dowdy happened to spot Derrick taking an entire handful of candy and cramming it into his mouth.

"I thought, 'My god, this man is hungry.' I said, "When did you eat last?' He said, 'Well, I had something last night.' I said, 'Did you have any breakfast this morning?' Derrick said no.

So Dowdy's routine changed.

He started bringing bringing Derrick food to work daily "so he'd at least have a good lunch here.'' Then Dowdy began taking Derrick places like the Pink Palace Museum and parks, "introducing him to the city.'' 

And when Dowdy noticed how ragged Derrick's clothes were becoming, he brought with him to the library some new clothes. Dowdy eventually realized that even the new clothes Derrick wore were becoming dirty. So he started having Derrick change at work so Dowdy could wash loads of Derrick's clothes at night and return them clean the next day.

Meanwhile, Derrick continued emerging from his shell. "He started to grow and change. At first he was very shy, rarely spoke in complete sentences... His conversational skills began to grow,'' Dowdy recalls.

Question & answer

"What's going to happen if Dad ever gets picked up?'' Derrick asked Dowdy one day.

That topic was the elephant in the room. Derrick's father had been driving without a license and without proper registration. Derrick knew an arrest was just a matter of time, Dowdy says.

Dowdy had been thinking through the issue long before Derrick's question. Something else had been gnawing at him, too:  Doing something that makes a difference in today's world.

"There are a lot of suffering people,'' Dowdy says. "What am I doing about it? Yes, the library is important. History is important. Yes, I am serving. But it doesn't feed anybody. It doesn't clothe anybody.''

Dowdy is single and has no children, but he is accostumed to being needed by others. He nursed his mother before she died of cancer. He took his grandfather out to eat nightly after his grandmother died. 

"So I was needed on that kind of level. Not as a librarian or manager or historian, but as a person,'' he says. "I hadn't had that in a while. So it was very important to me to be that person. I realize now I'd been thinking about it a lot.

"The moment met with Derrick, when he needed somebody. I needed somebody. And that's how it happened.''

Dowdy's response to Derrick's question:  "Well, you'll come stay with me.''

As anticipated, Derrick's father was eventually arrested. It happened September 2015 in West Memphis. Derrick called Dowdy for help. True to his word, the historian drove there to get Derrick.

The future

Dowdy is providing Derrick a home for the long-term. 

He's got Derrick enrolled in a Medicaid program for people with intellectual disabilities. Dowdy also is close to obtaining Social Security funds for Derrick.

"He's going to stay with me,'' says Dowdy, 53. "As I get older I probably won't be able to take care of him. I want to be sure there's money so someone will take care of him.''

The pair do lots of things together. They often eat at restaurants like The Cupboard. They recently drove to Covington to visit the Tipton County Museum.They go bowling together.

Derrick enjoys cosplay -- dressing up as a character from a movie or book -- and volunteers to entertain children at hospitals and schools. Dowdy took Derrick last weekend to the Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention at the Guesthouse at Graceland.

May I help you?

The Memphis library trains its staff to ask customers, "May I help you?"

But that's just the start.

Often, nervous or intimidated library-goers do not or cannot articulate what they really are looking for.

"Sometimes the customer will say 'I need a book on the Civil War' but what they really want is a book on Abraham Lincoln,'' Dowdy says. So librarians start what they call the "reference interview.''

"So you ask, 'What part of the Civil War are you interested in? Is there a particular person you're interested in?' We're trained to try and answer the real question,'' Dowdy says.

"A lot of us don't know how to ask what we really want,'' Dowdy says.

It took some time, but in this case both the library customer and the librarian found what they really wanted.