health literacy Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Librarians Bridge the Gap: Accessing Public Health Information

By Laurie D. Borman | September 17, 2019

In this five-part series, American Libraries presents case studies and interviews with thought leaders looking at research trends in academic libraries. We’ll be covering trends on the topics of social justice, information literacy, digital archives, faculty outreach, and new technology. This is our second story in the series. “Whether it’s helping to work with a question, … Continue reading Librarians Bridge the Gap: Accessing Public Health Information →

Exercise Your Resources

By Noah Lenstra | May 1, 2019

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, for instance, hosts Connections4Health, a program in which college student volunteers refer patrons to health resources, including those that address food insecurity, transportation, housing, and immigration concerns. In Ithaca, New York, Tompkins County Public Library teams up with Cornell University and Ithaca College for Ballet and Books, in which college students … Continue reading Exercise Your Resources →

Librarians Defeating ALS

By Dane Ward | April 29, 2019

ALS—or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease—is a motor neuron disorder characterized by progressive weakening of muscles, often beginning in the legs or arms. More than 5,000 people in the US are diagnosed with ALS each year, and about 20,000 have it at any given time. After diagnosis, most patients die within … Continue reading Librarians Defeating ALS →

Library Zombie Workshop Is a No-Brainer Success

By Anne Ford | October 30, 2018

That’s what it took to come up with the idea of the Zombie Pandemic Preparedness Workshop, held October 25 at Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Library’s (GCPL) Suwanee branch. The workshop taught attendees how to plan and prepare for a real-life pandemic. Participants learned crucial tips such as the importance of having an emergency supply kit … Continue reading Library Zombie Workshop Is a No-Brainer Success →

Mobile food programs, like this one at Camden County (N.J.) Library System, are teaching food literacy and delivering nutritious meals in food deserts. Photo: Camden County (N.J.) Library System

A Movable Feast

By Lara Ewen | September 4, 2018

“The city of Camden has only one grocery store, and most city residents rely on small stores and bodegas for food,” says Devlin. “These stores have a more limited supply of healthy food, which limits meal planning.” Inspired by a visit to the nearby Culinary Literacy Center at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Devlin decided … Continue reading A Movable Feast →

Elizabeth Sargent (left), associate director of customer experience at Houston Public Library, speaks about her experience using the WIC center at Stimley-Blue Ridge.

WIC, Wellness, and Libraries

By Amanda Davis | March 26, 2018

Staff members of Houston Public Library (HPL) discusses the WIC food and nutrition center in one of their branches in the session “What Having a WIC Center in Your Library Brings (Besides Crying Babies)” on March 22. Drew Alvey, manager of HPL’s Stimley-Blue Ridge branch, spoke of the WIC center project consisting of three overlapping … Continue reading WIC, Wellness, and Libraries →

Hungry for Health Information

By Miranda Doran-Myers | February 11, 2018

Patients today are now expected to be more involved in making decisions about their health, and as they search for information librarians are often asked questions like the ones above. In her presentation, “The Health Needs of Your Community Are Increasing. How Will You Meet Them?,” Bobbi Newman, a community engagement and outreach coordinator for … Continue reading Hungry for Health Information →

Claudia Alstrom, president of the Adult Library Garden Club at Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library's Rancho Cordova branch, teaches children about vegetables in the Read and Feed garden. Photo: Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library

Library to Farm to Table

By Timothy Inklebarger | November 1, 2016

For some libraries serving vulnerable populations, food-producing gardens and nutrition initiatives are born out of necessity. Others have launched programs to advance the causes of sustainability and education. When David Mixdorf was named director of the South Sioux City (Neb.) Public Library in 2009, he was well positioned to establish the library’s first community garden. … Continue reading Library to Farm to Table →

From left: Erica Lake, associate librarian from the University of Utah’s Eccles Health Sciences Library; Mary White, a public health librarian with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Praba Naidoo of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa; and Dijana Sabolović-Krajina, from the Public Library Fran Galović in Koprivnica, Croatia.

Bridging the Health Divide

By Terra Dankowski | August 18, 2016

Librarians from South Africa, Croatia, Sri Lanka, and the United States presented findings from diverse initiatives, campaigns, and studies, mostly focusing on the librarian’s role in facilitating health information for the public and acting as a bridge to professional medical resources. Praba Naidoo of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, presented on a … Continue reading Bridging the Health Divide →

Marilynn Lance-Robb, branch manager at the Carvers Bay Branch Library in Georgetown, South Carolina, assists a patron with health information. Photo: Marilynn Lance-Robb

Improving Health Literacy, One Public Library at a Time

By Lea Radick | October 30, 2015

Instead, Davis assists patrons with their health care questions by helping them find information on Medline-Plus, an authoritative, free website where the public can find health information in more than 40 languages. Although Davis, a former medical librarian, is familiar with health care topics, most public librarians do not necessarily have a medical background. Still … Continue reading Improving Health Literacy, One Public Library at a Time →

Panelists Lydia Collins, Carrie Banks, Christian Minter, and Anita Kinney

Public Health and Public Libraries

By Amy Carlton | July 1, 2015

Unfortunately, according to Christian Minter, NLM Associate Fellow at Welch Library, Johns Hopkins University, 36% of adults in the US (87 million people) have basic or below basic health literacy. Low health literacy leads to $106 to $236 billion in health care costs annually because of higher use of emergency rooms, longer hospitalizations, and other … Continue reading Public Health and Public Libraries →

Studying Up on Health Care Literacy

By Laurie D. Borman | December 3, 2013

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), with open enrollment for health insurance running from October 1, 2013, through March 14, 2014, may turn out to be as busy as April tax time for libraries. And as with taxes, those manning the reference desk are not expected to be experts or to help people complete the paperwork, … Continue reading Studying Up on Health Care Literacy →

Latest Library Links

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An Arizona antique dealer has discovered a long-overdue item from the Los Angeles Public Library, and it’s way too big to fit through the book-return slot. A bronze sculpture by US artist Lee Lawrie (best known for his free-standing Atlas in front of New York City’s Rockefeller Center) has turned up at Floyd Lillard’s antique shop in Bisbee, 50 years after it went missing from the iconic library in downtown L.A. Lillard said he plans to return the artwork to the library, just as soon as officials there decide how to transport the roughly 250-pound curved panel. He bought the sculpture about 10 years ago from a woman in Sierra Vista.

Tucson Arizona Daily Star, Sept. 20
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Rachel Kramer Bussel writes: “In April, librarian Jennifer Rothschild tweeted about the disparity between ebook and print prices publishers charge libraries vs. the public, garnering over 4,000 likes for a Tweet that read ‘So here’s the thing—I am worried that publishing is killing libraries, and that will, in turn, kill publishing,’ the first in a thread exploring the issue. The thread became so popular that Rothschild, collection engagement librarian for Arlington (Va.) Public Library, has continued them, expanding from discussing publishers’ library ebook prices to comparing prices for specific books on national bestseller lists, and noting when publishers change their terms.”

Forbes, Sept. 20
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Perhaps the largest Little Free Library in Mississippi is in Mize. It is a full-size reproduction of the TARDIS—Time and Relative Dimension in Space—a well-known device in the Doctor Who TV series that combines travel across time and space. The TARDIS is “much bigger on the inside” and full of adventure and mystery, so was an appropriate and engaging vehicle for a Little Free Library, said Dick Ford, who built most of the structure and was instrumental in getting it located outside the R. T. Prince Memorial Library in Mize. However, it is not the only TARDIS Little Free Library, as there are at least 37 others.

Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, Sept. 17
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Caroline Haskins writes: “One day in early September, Archivist Tony Cucchiara gave me a tour of the massive archival system for Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, accounting for all 570,000 burials. Green-Wood has millions of pages of burial orders, lot information, and family information spread across three buildings. The information in these files is useful to historians studying disease, to genealogists, to descendants of the deceased, and to New York history generally. However, climate change poses threats to archives around the country. In a worst-case scenario, climate change could mean that irreplaceable records documenting the course of human history are lost forever.”

Vice, Sept. 17
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A prolific book thief has been jailed for 25 months after he stole more than 7,000 books from three universities in Edinburgh, Scotland, before selling them online. Darren Barr is said to have made more than £30,000 by selling the textbooks through the online book markets WeBuyBooks, Ziffit, and Zapper. During an 11-month crime spree from October 2017, Barr is believed to have stolen thousands of textbooks from Napier University and hundreds more from Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt universities. The books included sought-after texts on nursing, business studies, human resources, criminology, and marketing.

The Guardian (UK), Sept. 18
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Joel Hruska writes: “Speeding up a slow PC can be a challenge, particularly when dealing with older hardware that may be on the cusp of needing an upgrade or replacement anyway. Sometimes, a system simply needs a fresh OS install or driver update to perform significantly better. In other cases, upgrade or wholesale replacement are necessary. This article is designed to help you troubleshoot a slow machine. Specifically, it walks through the process of determining whether your problem is more likely to be caused by software, hardware, or simply the age of the machine.”

ExtremeTech, Sept. 20
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Erin Nguyen writes: “Many public libraries can identify with the challenge of providing weekend programming to patrons. We know that weekends are an ideal time to provide programs for patrons who are unable to attend programming during weekday storytime sessions, yet we are often so leanly staffed on the weekends that adding the responsibility of presenting programs to our staff workload is next to impossible. Through grant funding and partnerships with a wide range of talented presenters, my library system is now able to provide Saturday family programming through our Saturday Stories and Songs series in order to meet this critical need.”

ALSC Blog, Sept. 20

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