How Comics Can Increase Health Literacy and Engagement

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

Close up of hands on a an open comic book

Graphic medicine is a wide-ranging category that includes graphic memoirs, non-fiction, and fiction for all age groups including adults, teens, and children. Graphic medicine works—graphic novels and comics with a health, wellness, or disease theme—often address stigmatized or misunderstood health conditions, as well as the health implications of racism, homophobia, and transphobia. Libraries have used graphic medicine to reduce feelings of isolation by helping community members feel seen while also introducing new health topics to a wider audience. Over the last year, graphic medicine titles have been heavily challenged or banned including Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe; Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel; and more.

This webinar offers an opportunity to discuss what graphic medicine is, what resources and titles are available, and how graphic medicine has been impacted by book challenges and bans. This webinar will also include examples of how public libraries are including graphic medicine in their programming and highlighting titles in their collections.

Learning Outcomes

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

define graphic medicine and its uses for different audiences including providers, patients and their families, and the general public;
identify collection development and programming resources and strategies to include graphic medicine in your library’s outreach and education; and
discuss the uses and limitations of graphic medicine for health literacy, and strategies for emphasizing the strengths and addressing the weaknessesx .

Who Should Attend

This webinar is intended for public library staff including adult, teen, and children's librarians, and collection development and programming staff.

Panelists

Sarah Levin-Lederer, MPH, is a public health professional with eleven years of experience working in outreach, community engagement, and health education in a variety of settings. Currently, Sarah is an education and outreach coordinator with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Region 7 (NNLM R7), with a focus on graphic medicine and outreach to public health partners. Partner outreach and engagement activities include overseeing grantees, teaching online and in person, and program development. Before joining NNLM R7, Sarah worked for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health on health outreach to refugee and immigrant serving organizations, homeless serving organizations, and the Free Library of Philadelphia (FLP). Coordinating the collaboration with FLP included creating and teaching programs for patrons and staff, writing public health emergency plans that included FLP as a response partner, and managing the creation and distribution of health information bookmarks.

Important Registration Information

Log into or create your ALA eLearning account

An ALA eLearning account is required to register. Don’t have an account? Create one for free by going to the “Log in” menu located at the top right corner of your screen. No membership is required to create the account. If you encounter any issues registering for this webinar, then please email ce@ala.org for assistance.

Redeem your signup code to complete your registration

Once you’ve registered for this webinar, a signup code will be added to your ALA eLearning account and emailed to you. Find the signup code on your signup code page, then redeem it on your account’s dashboard to complete your enrollment in this live webinar.

Review the ALA eLearning FAQ if you need more information.

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).