The primary goals for the Healthy Living Outreach for Seniors program were to help seniors develop the ability to use technology through tablets, as well as understand the importance of e-health literacy and patient-centered care.
New research by a San Jose State University scholar finds that most health programs offered by a major U.S. public library system are developed through community partnerships. San Jose Public Library not only works with partners to develop programs offered at the library, they also participate in regional health campaigns. Keep reading to learn how they do it, and to get inspired to try something new at your library!Â
Our library has partnered with our local Wood River Parks and Recreation Department to offer a weekly children's program for kids (ages 5 and younger) that combines gymnastics and motor skills with literacy.
The library provides staff and a story for story time; the parks department provices the gymnastics equipment and space for the little ones to play.Â
Book Bathing provides an opportunity for library users to reimagine the physical space of a library and engage all of their senses through a guided mindfulness audio experience.
Believe it or not, the origin story of Ocean County Library’s Sensory Space begins with the “Real Housewives of New Jersey.” A few years back, Jacqueline Laurita, cast member of the New Jersey franchise of Bravo’s hit show, posted a video on social media of her 8-year-old son with autism being asked to leave a library for having a brief meltdown.
Bookish Trailblazers is a monthly outdoor book club dedicated to bringing nature and adventure to patrons. Through the program, we seek to encourage patrons to spend more time outdoors, to appreciate and learn about nature through books, and to exercise.
As libraries become centers of community-based lifelong learning, they seek more opportunities to enhance access to natural spaces located in the communities they serve. The nonprofit Children & Nature Network (C&NN) helps librarians find the partners and resources they need to understand how and why to connect children and families to nature. C&NN also helps potential partners understand the impacts that can derive from working with libraries.
Join us for a webinar with Charlotte Mecklenburg (N.C.) Library, Gail Borden Public Library District (Elgin, Ill.), and Let’s Move in Libraries! to learn how libraries of all sizes can incorporate walking into programs for all ages.
Health care can be confusing for everyone. More than 90 million U.S. adults have low health literacy, which provides a framework to guide both health care professionals and community members to use health information and make informed decisions about their own, their family’s and their community’s health and wellbeing. Libraries play an essential role in making quality health information accessible to all.
In this session, the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Culinary Literacy Center will share their work over the last five years using food and cooking as a context for learning in neighborhood libraries across Philadelphia. With some basic utensils and countertop appliances, you can create your own mobile kitchen classroom.
Beginning in the early 1970s, colleges and universities across the U.S. (and beyond!) started developing campus wellness offices and initiatives. Today, these units have become nearly ubiquitous.
This month, two Michigan public libraries — Pontiac and Pinckney — acquired basketballs, footballs, baseballs and other sports equipment that can be checked out from the library for a two-week period, marking the beginning of Project Play: Southeast Michigan.
Of course, all that equipment does no good if it just sits on the shelves, so libraries are working with partners, in particular local YMCAs, to offer active play programs that show patrons how to utilize the new collections.Â
The YMCA of the USA is “a leading nonprofit organization for youth development, healthy living and social responsibility” that includes approximately 2,700 local entities that together engage 21 million Americans. They are also the perfect partner for any public library interested in developing health and wellness programs.
In this blog series, we’ve talked about all aspects of Boomers and Beyond, a large-scale, grant-funded program series for Baby Boomers at the Palos Verdes Library District — from deciding which grant to apply for based on our community’s needs, to owning our failures, to getting people to show up for our 36 programs.
Geri-Fit® is a 45-minute, evidence-based strength training exercise class for older adults of all physical ability. Most of the bodybuilding exercises are performed seated in chairs with a set of light dumbbell weights with participants following along to a DVD or streamed workout. There’s no dancing, aerobics or choreography to learn, and participants never have to get on the floor.
Through its full-time youth health and program coordinator position, the City of Harker Heights (Texas) Stewart C. Meyer Public Library is working to infuse health and wellness into all of its programming.
Destinee Barton stepped into this new role in September 2018 after earning her bachelor’s degree in community health from Texas Woman’s University. I recently talked with Destinee, along with Library Director Lisa Youngblood and Children's Librarian Amanda Hairton, about how this new position emerged, what impacts it has had, and where they see it heading.
To better prepare the community in case of an emergency, the Dallas Public Library prepared a joint library and community disaster preparedness plan. The plan included a one-shelf collection of books at seven branch locations and a one-shelf medical reference collection at three branch locations for the community to use in times of emergency.
We also created a pocket guide that would hold useful disaster preparation information and distributed 25 flash drives with pertinent information for use during a disaster when access to our server might be inhibited.
Through Tales and Travel, the Gail Borden Public Library seeks to reach a stigmatized population: older adults with early- to mid-stage dementia. This monthly “excursion,” offered at 17 assisted-living facilities in the region by the end of 2017, takes participants on an imaginary trip to another country or region of the United States using library materials (e.g. books, music and objects).
Winterset is a community of 5,120 in central Iowa, about 40 miles outside Des Moines. Since 2011, a number of our local organizations have collaborated to present Wellness Wednesdays in Winterset, a program series that strives to improve the health and wellness of our residents. Programs run from early May to late October and are free of charge and open to all ages.
This interactive program introduced adults to healthy cooking techniques and free online health information resources from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) through a series of three two-hour cooking demonstrations. The project targeted people with obesity, diabetes and other weight-management concerns.
