LIS Student Creates Health Literacy Collection for Her Library

Posted by liaison on May 2nd, 2022 Posted in: #CC/Academic List, #Health Interest List, #Health Sciences List, #Public/K-12 List, All Members

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In this blog, Kris Torp, a graduate student from Emporia State University,  will describe her experience creating a health literacy collection for her public library. 

My name is Kristi Torp and I am a second-year student at Emporia State University earning my MLS with an emphasis in Health Information Professionals. I currently work as a page at the Springville Public Library in Springville, Utah. Don’t let that discourage you from reading about my collection building experience though, I just really love organizing books! I also love gardening and raising chickens and my kids. One of the required classes for all students at Emporia is Collection Development which culminates in a hypothetical collection whose creation includes a policy addendum, a selection list, and a supportive LibGuide. The total first-year budget is $5000. To support my interests in health librarianship, I chose to create a health literacy collection for the public library where I currently work. I had no knowledge or experience before this class so perhaps sharing the process may be valuable for any public librarians, or those who assist public librarians, with little community health experience.

Soon after choosing my topic, our textbook discussed bibliographic tools. I was excited to peruse the index and see what wondrous lists awaited me. None. There were none listed, not even Doody’s Core Titles! Our adult and teen librarians weren’t aware of any bibliographic tools either. They used their best judgment. I imagine this is the case for many public librarians, particularly in small branches. I conducted internet searches for “consumer health, public library” and “public library health literacy”, which resulted in some usable materials, but not enough to exhaust my budget. I also found the health literacy page on the NNLM site. I tried to sign up for the Health Literacy On Demand class, but was unsuccessful in registering. However, I was able to download the included PowerPoint for the class. This PowerPoint had some great information to get me started and helped me draft my policy addendum.

The NNLM PowerPoint taught me that I should focus the collection on community health needs, but I wasn’t sure where to find that data. Using the sites listed on the PowerPoint (countyhealthrankings.org, cityhealthdashboard.com) were, unfortunately, fruitless because Springville is a comparatively healthy city. However, I was able to find the top causes of death on the CDC website and figured I would base the collection on those. After more searching and exploring, I found the NNLM Reading Club and the Graphic Medicine Exhibit from NIH and NLM. I felt I had a decent number of materials at this point, but I was frustrated most of my community data wasn’t more narrow.

Last year I did a practicum project with John Bramble from NNLM so I reached out to him. Having a connection proved to be the most valuable part of this experience. John introduced me to George Strawley who suggested I look for the “Community Health Needs Assessments” at the nearest hospital. By reading the CHNA, I discovered a greater “so what?” for my collection that gave my selections better focus. There were two topic overlaps with the CDC site’s top four causes of death, showing that the greatest health concerns at the hospital were not necessarily those that caused the most deaths. The CHNA allowed me to bring the focus to overall health and not just longevity. This felt like the missing piece to creating a collection specifically for my community. George also suggested searching the MLA site for Consumer and Patient Health Information Services (CAPHIS) and I was able to get more titles from the Consumer Connections newsletter.

Springville Library has a growing collection of “things” called Discovery Kits and I wanted to include those with this collection, but again, needed recommendations. The NNLM PowerPoint suggested keeping a library of things like bikes or seed banks. A Google search helped me discover blood pressure monitors from Sacramento Public Library, but I was at a loss of what else to include. I eventually ended up finding some digital devices listed at the health libraries at UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University. Although they were geared primarily toward students and faculty doing research, I found some devices that I thought would be popular among Springville residents.

Springville City is about 13 percent Hispanic, and I wanted my collection to reflect the city demographics by including materials in Spanish. I found difficulty discovering authoritative Spanish materials. I speak some conversational Spanish, but not enough to determine if a book uses good science or quackery. I ended up choosing Spanish versions of other materials on my list, which were difficult to find. I also would have liked to have had more written directly to the Latino community.

The final portion of the project was creating the LibGuide. Marketing my collection had a greater effect on my selection list than I anticipated. Planning for how a collection will be marketed should be planned into every collection’s development process. The collection development process itself was nonlinear. I often had to revisit sections I thought were finished after updating another section. Knowing to plan for this with future collection development was valuable.

In the end, what I needed most were precise search terms for determining the health needs of my specific community and bibliographic lists or tools, including “things”. Once I was directed to the right lists and terms, I felt that I had hit a goldmine. Creating the collection around the community health data and planning for marketing before the selections were finalized, gave me confidence that the collection would be useful and usable to Springville residents. The adult services librarian at Springville is thrilled with what I’ve discovered and is excited to use them to build the collection.