Health Literacy and Public Libraries

***BEFORE YOU REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR PLEASE REVIEW IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION BELOW***

Public libraries need practical, evidence-based approaches to health literacy to combat the spread of health misinformation, and better connect with their communities to improve health outcomes and equity. This webinar will provide an updated look at health literacy to equip librarians with the information and tools their communities need. Featuring a panel of experts on health literacy in diverse communities, this webinar will highlight the important role health literacy has in achieving health equity, promoting social justice, and eliminating health disparities. Learn how public libraries can address health equity through cultural competence, collections, purposeful outreach, and partnership programs.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify ways in which public libraries can enhance equity in health literacy;
• Explore the role of community needs assessment and cultural competence for capacity building; and
• Consider the specific health literacy needs of diverse communities, including Latinx communities, refugees, older adults, and others.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is intended for all public library staff, most especially those who work in public services, such as community outreach. It will also be of interest to library administrators considering evidence-based approaches to meet the health information needs of their diverse communities.

Panelists

Emily Vardell (she/her) is an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University in Kansas. Her research interests focus broadly on information behavior, including health insurance literacy. Emily earned her PhD from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Master of Library Science degree from Texas Woman’s University. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked as a health sciences librarian, and she continues to be an active member of the Medical Library Association.

Deborah H. Charbonneau (she/her) is a professor and chair of the MLIS Program in the School of Information Sciences at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Deborah completed her PhD in Sociology at Wayne State University. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked as a health sciences librarian and she holds a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include health literacy, accessibility, and scholarly communication issues. She currently teaches courses in library management, health informatics, research methods, and information policy.

Maggie Shawcross (she/her) is a teaching and learning librarian at the Michener Library at the University of Northern Colorado, in Greeley, CO. Maggie received her Master’s in Public Health from the University of Northern Colorado and is a certified health education specialist (CHES) through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC). Before becoming a librarian, she worked in public health as a health educator in various capacities. Her professional library experience includes serving as a consumer health librarian at a hospital and an adult services librarian at a public library, where she enjoyed providing health programming to patrons. Maggie received her Master’s of Library and Information Science from the University of Denver. Her current research interests include professional development for new health professionals, public librarians transitioning careers to academic libraries, and intellectual freedom issues.

Margie Sheppard (she/her) is the community engagement coordinator for the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), Region 3. She is based at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, KS. Margie holds an undergraduate degree in Nursing from Webster University and a Master of Library Science from Emporia State University. Prior to joining NNLM she was a consultant for a public library system in Central Kansas. She currently teaches courses in multilingual health information, Wikipedia editing, and health and wellness.

Angela Murrell (she/her) is an associate librarian at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library in Tucson, AZ. Angela serves as one of the liaisons to the College of Medicine. Her twenty-year library career has been in hospital, medical school, and research settings focused primarily on information literacy, health literacy, and library instruction. She earned her Master of Library and Information Sciences degree from Louisiana State University. Angela's research interests focus on information and data literacy, improving research skills in health practitioners, and how health humanities can improve health outcomes for patients and medical professionals.

Important Registration Information

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Accommodations

This live webinar will be captioned in English (United States). Zoom desktop client or mobile app is required to access captions.

Attendees using screen readers are advised to turn off speech prior to joining the Zoom event because PLA webinars make extensive use of chat functionality. Attendees who find chat distracting may wish to disable it in the Zoom event, as PLA moderators will verbally highlight important topics raised in chat and chat transcripts will be provided post-webinar.

If you have a physical or communication need that may affect your participation in this webinar, please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752) at least two weeks prior to the webinar. Without prior notification of need, we may not be able to provide appropriate accommodations for the live event.

Archived Recording

If you're unable to attend this live webinar, an archived recording will be available to all registrants typically within 1–3 business of the live event. Access to closed captions will be provided in the webinar recording.

Tech Requirements

This webinar will be presented using the Zoom platform. Please review Zoom technical requirements and support information, and test your connection.

Once you've joined the webinar, there are two ways to connect your audio: via computer (VoIP) or via telephone. No microphone is required. PLA works with its webinar platform provider to assure the highest quality audio is being delivered to attendees. However, variables over which PLA has no control—such as the speed of your Internet connection or traffic on your local network—can affect the end quality of the webinar audio delivered by your computer. Each webinar’s audio is also available by telephone via a toll number, so we recommend you have access to a long-distance enabled phone as a backup in case you experience audio issues with VoIP. If you do encounter any problems during the webinar, you will receive a link to its archived recording within a week of the live event and can review anything you missed.

Contact

This webinar is presented by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Questions about this webinar? Please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).