Northern Vermont – Focused Outreach Report Back

Posted by benniefinch on August 25th, 2023 Posted in: Blog, Funded Project, Weekly Newsletter
Tags: Focused Outreach, public libraries

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Last year we developed some new partnerships and re-engaged with some long-standing members of the NNLM in northern Vermont. In this article I will share about some of the libraries and partners we met through out focused outreach work and some of the projects and work in health information outreach and technology developed as a result of those relationships.

By focusing on a few specific areas each year, we are able to introduce, or re-introduce, the Network of the National Library of Medicine as a source of training in health information resources and funding for health-related projects. In addition, this provides an opportunity for us to learn more about the health information access needs and priorities of the communities we serve, providing valuable insight for our work and to bring back to the National Library of Medicine.

To learn more about R7’s Focused Outreach work, history, evaluation plan and outcomes, read Sarah’s post on Focused Outreach Evaluation.

In Year 2, May 2022-April of 2023, we focused on Berkshire County, Massachusetts and the four most northern counties of Vermont, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, and Grand Isle. Sarah Levin-Lederer and I focused our work in Vermont. We reached out to existing partners who serve the area, such as librarians from the Dana Health Sciences Library at the University of Vermont in Burlington, a former librarian from the White River Junction VA, both of whom recommended connecting with the Vermont Department of Libraries. Through our relationship with Joy Worland with the Vermont, Department of Libraries, we were invited to attend local meetings of library directors and to present two statewide trainings on an Introduction to the NNLM and Providing Multilingual and Multicultural Health Information.

Visiting in person was a great experience. It was wonderful to visit several libraries, but we wished we had time to meet in person with others. Meeting the librarians and visiting their spaces and collections were all so informative but also exciting to see how libraries are working in similar and different ways.

Georgia Public Library was one of our first connections. Bridget Stone is an amazing community organizer, so it was very exciting to hear about some of the projects that she was working on such as a bicycle derby and other programs to support her patrons, from young children to older adults. Following our visit, Bridget gathered an array of community members and providers to learn about ways the library could support health in their area. They submitted a proposal and received a health information outreach award for Year 3, which spans now through April 2024. Their project supports older adults and has two major components, opportunities for social connection and digital equity. We are so excited to be able to support this work.

 

Brenda Stanley from Enosburgh Public Library shared about their library’s work early during the pandemic, installing appropriate electrical outlets outside, boosting WIFI and providing benches so that the community could have WIFI access even when the library building was closed to visitors. Following their brief closure, the library held community listening sessions with older adults and from that feedback developed a healthy living series.

The Enosburgh Public Library was already partnering with organizations, and this provided more ideas for ways to support patrons, such as having a dedicated space and programming from community organizations and other opportunities for meet-ups for older adults. NNLM Region 7 is pleased to be able to fund a Technology Award at the Enosburgh Public Library in Year 3 to increase access and digital skills development to support health and to bridge the digital divide, an initiative of the NNLM.

Two other projects were funded in our outreach area through Collection Equity Awards. NNLM Region 7 was pleased to award these to the Franklin- Grand Isle Book Mobile and the Alice M. Ward Memorial Library.

Through directors’ meetings and other opportunities, it was a great pleasure to meet with libraries and librarians in the area. Sarah Levin-Lederer also met with a number of organizations and partners in northern Vermont and throughout the state. You can also find some of the key themes from our focused outreach over the past few years in her blog post.

Some of the fun things I noticed were story walks, print collections, and the collections of things!

The NNLM is committed to support health information access and would love to learn more about your library or organization and community! If you happen to live or work in Litchfield County, Connecticut or Cheshire and Sullivan Counties in New Hampshire, we will be visiting your areas this summer and fall and would especially like to hear from you.