Your library can play a central role in promoting the health and wellness of its community through fostering higher health literacy. This means increasing people’s capacity to obtain and understand basic health information that leads to appropriate health decisions and connection with services. Library programs directed toward children, teens, adults, and families deliver credible health information and activities that boost wellness. The Oklahoma Department of Libraries has fostered health literacy throughout the state, forging partnerships at state and local levels. Learn how one library in Miami, Oklahoma, made health literacy a central part of its operations, offering everything from diabetes prevention to yoga classes, as well healthy cooking demonstrations and even a community garden. Get ideas for simple (but powerful) health literacy programs you can offer at your library regardless of your size or budget.

This webinar is hosted in collaboration with Let’s Move in Libraries.

Presented by: Noah Lenstra, Let’s Move in Libraries, Assistant Professor of Library and Information Studies, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Leslie A. Gelders, Literacy Administrator, Oklahoma Literacy Resource Office, Oklahoma Department of Libraries; and Marcia Johnson, Library Director, Miami (OK) Public Library

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Related Resources and Links

• Let’s Move in Libraries
  • Program ideas
    
  • Examples of liability forms in Safety First secition
  • on Facebook
  • Movement-Based Programs in U.S. and Canadian Public Libraries: Evidence of Impacts from an Exploratory Survey
• National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) Healthy Meeting Guidelines and Toolkit
• Seek support from other librarians
  • PLA Health Initiative newsletter and Healthy Community Tools for Public Libraries
    
  • NNLM Regional Libraries 
  • Libraries are Champions of Healthy Communities (Facebook group)
  • Programming Librarian Interest Group (Facebook group)
  • Libraries and the Opioid Crisis
  • Get your community moving : physical literacy programs for all ages, by Jenn Carson
• Library Moon Walk and Activities for Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut from NASA
• Lunch at the Library, and WebJunction webinar, Lunch at the Library: Nourishing Bodies and Minds
  
• Health Literacy in Oklahoma
• Data and Resources to assess health literacy need
  • Health Literacy Fact Sheet – Oklahoma Department of Libraries
  • Library Heroes Make Health Happen – WebJunction infographic
  • National Network of Libraries of Medicine – on Health Literacy
  • Supporting Healthy Communities through Health Information and Services (pdf) – Explore demographic resources to understand who comprises your community and what their health literacy needs are.
  • World Health Organization - The global action plan on physical activity 2018 – 2030 – Review to understand how regular physical activity is part of being health literate
  • America’s Health Rankings         
  •  2018 County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
  • The State of Obesity: 2018 Better Policies for a Healthier America
  • 500 Cities: Local Data for Better Health
• Conferences of interest
  • Wisconsin Health Literacy Summit, April 2-3, 2019
  • IHA's 18th Annual Health Literacy Conference, May 1-3, 2019
• Health Literacy Happens at Miami Public Library, a WebJunction profile
• USDA's ChooseMyPlate.gov
• Order free publications from the National Institute on Aging
  
• PLA's Project Outcome
  
• Health Happens in Libraries on WebJunction with many resources
• Growing Library Garden Programs, a WebJunction collection of resources and examples
• Library Kitchens and Cooking Programs, a WebJunction collection of resources and examples
• Public Libraries Respond to the Opioid Crisis with Their Communities
• Additional resources shared in chat
  • Line dancing, yoga just some of the offerings at Portsmouth libraries
  • To find your local Extension office
  • Miami Public Library's children's garden
  • Free Library of Philadelphia's Culinary Literacy Toolkit
  • Thread on the Programming Librarian Interest Group on "Fur Parents Day" programs with some ideas
  • Stillwater (OK) Public Library StoryWalk (video)
    
  • Find your area agency on aging
    
  • Akron-Summit County PL in Ohio combines wellness & summer reading in its annual "Mind, Body, & Sole" summer library program
  • NNLM Reading Club will be releasing its selection of 3 book titles in support of Heart Health month in another week or so
  • Programming Librarian ideas for National Nutrition Month
  • Gail Borden Public Library District March Into Health