Resources
Access the tools, program ideas and primers you need to stay up-to- date on health literacy topics.
Program Ideas
Constellation Cross-Stitch is a beginner's class where patrons of all ages can learn basic techniques in cross-stitch and embroidery. Patrons utilize skills such as hand/eye coordination and hand dexterity, and they leave with a piece of handmade art for their home.
This panel discussion about community gardens increased awareness for High Point Library's seed-sharing program, its gardening classes and the local farmers' market, which is held on library grounds.
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.
There are profound health inequalities for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. In an effort to reduce the health information gap, East Carolina University (ECU) led an outreach program to help future leaders and college students from rural farmworker families access health information.
Saturday mornings in our small town are not the busiest time at the LP Fisher Public Library, especially in the summer. People have either gone to the lake, are working in their gardens, or are at the farmers market. We are situated in a fairly rural area and agriculture (both marget garden and industrial) makes up a fair bit of our economy. So in 2018, we decided to try going to where the farmers and shoppers are — the market.
The Science & Technology Division of the Akron Summit County Public Library developed and implemented a program to loan out wearable fitness trackers to low-income residents in the city of Akron. This program sought to get residents more active and also teach them about library health resource, so participants were required to attend two training sessions on National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources.
When Palos Verdes Library District was charged with creating a large-scale, grant-funded program series for older adults, we knew we would have to be at the top of our marketing game. After all, big programs call for big marketing.
As much as we love fliers and posters, we knew that this time, they weren't going to meet our marketing needs. Your marketing plan really needs to match the size and amount of programming you’re doing, and it needs to be tailored to the audience you're trying to reach.
For public libraries and community partners across North America, February is prime time for gardening programs. There are many types of gardening programs you can offer, and many partners you can work with to develop them.
A quick survey of the gardening programs being offering this February and March in North America reveals that libraries are offering:
Spring Break Challenge Quest was a library district-wide, weeklong drop-in and passive program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Held during our schools' spring break, the series involved daily "quests" to challenge the mind and body, from scavenger hunts to binary coding to yoga.
The yoga quest challenged kids to look at printed silhouettes of yoga poses (e.g. child's pose, downward-facing dog) and figure out how to position their bodies into the poses shown.
Listed below are events and celebrations to help with your program planning. Know of a celebration or event that is not on the list? Send it to ProgrammingLibrarian@ala.org.
