13 Reasons Why You Matter was a program aimed toward young adults and teens to talk about bullying and to help raise self-esteem in the month of May 2017. This program was inspired by the popular Netflix Original Series "13 Reasons Why," based on the book of the same name by Jay Asher.
While experiencing months of isolation due to COVID-19, conversations about the importance of mental health have come to the forefront.
How is everyone doing? Not to sound like the dozens of emails you’ve no doubt received from countless large corporations, but what an unprecedented time we are living in. (Are you tired of hearing that yet? Me too.) I’m willing to bet your education and training did not prepare you for this.
While attending the Next Library Conference in Berlin in September 2018 I showed up for an interactive session called "Library Story-Times and Maternal Mental Health." The talk was led by a library assistant from Essex Libraries in the U.K. and two researchers from the firm Shared Intelligence. I was curious about how storytimes could benefit new mothers, especially given my own experience as a new mom.
Therapy dogs in libraries are not new. Most frequently brought in as "listeners" for young children to build their reading skills, therapy dogs of all sizes can be found in even the most remote library. If your library already has a therapy dog program, it can be an easy transition to include teens in the mix.
