Episode 18: Dr. Kaitlin Montague
Exploring the information needs of vehicle residents
While this episode isn’t solely focused on library social work, there’s definitely some overlap. The vehicle residents Dr. Montague studies face many of the same access challenges that library workers encounter with patrons. And although living in a vehicle isn’t identical to being unhoused, the two experiences are connected—especially as more people turn to their cars for shelter in the face of rising housing costs and stagnant wages.
In addition to discussing what Kaitlin has learned from doing fieldwork at information-sharing events for mobile communities, we discuss what libraries can do to support vehicle residents, how we might better prepare MLIS students for public-facing roles, and the day-to-day stressors many public library workers are navigating.
When we recorded this conversation last December, Kaitlin was in the thick of writing her dissertation. Since then, she’s earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University (2025), where she also completed her Master of Information back in 2016. Now, Kaitlin is a postdoc and lecturer at the Institute of Library and Information Science at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research focuses on how people living in their vehicles find and use information—especially how mobility and constant movement shape what kind of access they have. Before diving into her doctoral work, Kaitlin worked as a public librarian from 2017 to 2020.
Heads up: the audio gets a little murky in places, but stick with it—it’s worth it.
Check out this soundbite from our conversation:
Topics
0:00 Intro
1:52 How Kaitlin came to study the information needs of vehicle residents (VR)
9:55 Challenge of quantifying VR
Point in Time counts
11:39 Information sharing events for VR
16:23 Trust & information
21:11 Public libraries & information needs of VR
25:56 Misconceptions about VR & advice for public libraries
29:23 Reality of public library work and preparing MLIS students
33:25 VR are respectful of shared spaces
34:20 Kaitlyn’s interests beyond of dissertation writing
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Links
Gault, M. (2024, October 1). Library WiFi Is Helping Asheville Residents Get Online After Hurricane Helene. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/library-wifi-is-helping-asheville-residents-get-online-after-hurricane-helene-2000505308
Meteorologist Vernon Turner. [@WeathermanVern]. (2024, September 9). The only available wifi in #Asheville is at the public library downtown. Here's a look at images taken by our photojournalist Maurice Griffin. [Thumbnail with link attached] [Post]. X. https://x.com/WeathermanVern/status/1840436098901639197
Montague, K. E. (2025a). “Basic human things”: Investigating vehicle residents’ continually fractured (information) landscapes. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.25013
Montague, K. E. (2025b). Geographical information ranges: Conceptualising holistic information landscapes. Information Research an International Electronic Journal, 30(CoLIS), 174–182. https://doi.org/10.47989/ir30CoLIS51910
Montague, K. E. (2024a). Building information worlds through community and experience: Preliminary findings of an ethnographic study of vehicle residents’ information practices. Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference. https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2024.1707
Montague, K. E. (2024b). Investigating mobility, place, and information access through an ethnographic study of vehicle residents’ information practices in the United States. Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference. https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2024.1783
Montague, K. E. (2024c). Mapping the road ahead: understanding social factors that shape vehicle residents’ information grounds. Information Research, 29(2), 427–435. https://doi.org/10.47989/ir292838
Montague, K. E. (2024d). “Mutual sustenance”: Co‐constructing the foundation for vulnerability in the participant/researcher relationship through an ethnographic study of vehicle residents’ information practices. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 61(1), 1033–1035. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.1177
Montague, K. E., Hartel, J., Greyson, D., Fourie, I., & Tracey, P. (2024). Ethnographic stories in Information Science. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 61(1), 799–802. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.1105
National Vehicle Residency Collective
Pruss, G. J. (2023). Homes without homes: An ethno-archaeology of vehicle residency in public parking. Human Organization, 82(2), 153–168. https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-82.2.153
For a list of additional resources, check out the Bibliography page