Birthing a Capstone: A Prenatal and Postpartum Health Toolkit for Public Librarians

Posted by Carolyn Martin on June 23rd, 2022 Posted in: Consumer Health, News from NNLM Region 5, Public Libraries
Tags: consumer health, health information, libraries, Maternal Health, public library, toolkit

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University of Washington Master’s in Library Science students, Shanti Rahim and Lauren Califano, finished their culminating capstone project for NNLM. Their capstone project was to create a library toolkit for the Network of the National Library of Medicine on childbirth services and resources, including prenatal and postpartum information and community providers. The purpose of this toolkit is for librarians around the US to be able to use it to create their own local resources about maternal health.

Using PubMed and MedlinePlus as well as curating more online resources, this new toolkit gives librarians a ready-made, customizable bank of resources so that they can distribute pre-prepared resources or customize our resources templates to suit their specific library’s needs and ensures that librarians have access to high-quality, evidence-based information about prenatal, expecting, and postpartum needs to distribute to patrons, with the option to tailor it to suit their patrons’ needs.

The toolkit includes:

• A guide and steps to assembling your own local resources for your library.
• Curated resources, including an inclusive language guide and birth terms glossary.
• Service types and examples on what to look for locally.
• A social media kit.

You can view Lauren and Shanti’s capstone project archive presentation here.

NNLM will provide access to the toolkit later this summer.