CLA Annual Conference Wrap-up

Posted by benniefinch on May 23rd, 2025 Posted in: Blog, Graphic Medicine, Member Spotlight, NLM Resources, Weekly Newsletter
Tags: Community of Interest, graphic medicine, hospital librarians, MedlinePlus, Member Spotlight, mental health, professional development, public libraries

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NNLM Region 7 was pleased to be able to attend the Connecticut Library Association Annual Conference titled “Making Space” a few weeks ago. NNLM staff, Bennie Finch and Sarah Levin-Lederer, each gave conference presentations in partnership with NNLM members. This was a great opportunity to connect with members and partners that we have worked with in the past and prospective partners. It was also a great opportunity to learn about the innovative and impactful work of the library community in Connecticut in conference presentations and informal conversations.

Supporting Mental Health in Your Library

On Monday, Anne M. Romano, MLIS, Director of Library Services/CME Coordinator at Silver Hill Hospital, and Bennie Finch, MSW, MLIS, Education & Outreach Coordinator at NNLM Region 7 presented Supporting Health Information in Your Library. This presentation highlighted freely accessible health information resources as well as national and local organizations and resources that are working to support mental health.

Bennie focused on how to find health information from resources such as MedlinePlus and national resources from some of the National Institutes of Health and other resources from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Anne presented on work that is happening in Connecticut through organizations such as NAMI, the Connecticut Clearinghouse, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Gizmo and more. She also shared many activities that she has hosted in her library and presented many great ideas for library programming and resources that public libraries can access. You can access the slides from this OSF link.

Gizmo is the retired Connecticut mascot for suicide prevention and the subject of the book addresses ways to care for your feelings, thoughts, and actions. In Connecticut anyone can order a free copy of Gizmo’s Pawesome Guide to Mental Health in English or Spanish. For those out of state, you can access a free download in English or Spanish or purchase copies. While the materials are written for children, they can provide ideas to support mental health for any age. Anne has hosted many read-alongs with Gizmo in public libraries in Connecticut.

Bennie’s takeaway

Presenting and exhibiting provides opportunities for attendees to follow up for more information and possibly make better use of the resources from presentations. Anne was also exhibiting at the conference on behalf of both the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Connecticut Association of Health Science Librarians (CAHSL). Before and after the presentation, attendees were able to connect to learn more about both. NNLM has also noticed this in our experience when we are able to present as well as exhibit. The presentation can introduce the resources, and the conversations can continue at the exhibiting table.

CAHSL at CLA

As mentioned above, Anne Marie Romano, President of the Connecticut Association of Health Science Librarians also presented on their behalf. CAHSL is made up of Connecticut librarians, staff, and students who have an interest in medical and health science librarianship. CAHSL offered a door prize for the Duck, Duck, Goose game with the exhibitors including a basket with three books recommended by CAHSL members: Here I Am, I Am Me: an Illustrated Guide to Mental Health, You Will Get Through This: A Mental Health Tool Kit―Help for Depression, Anxiety, Grief, and More, and Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind.

CAHSL was pleased to share about the organization with some of the library schools who were exhibiting at the conference to let them know that student membership is free and to support the connection of LIS programs to CAHSL. It was also an opportunity to connect with other CAHSL members.

Veronica’s takeaway

CAHSL Member and NNLM Community of Interest Member, Veronica Bilenkin, is a Consumer Health Librarian at Greenwich Hospital. She shared that she was pleased to see the variety of presentations related to health this year. She attended both of the presentations mentioned in this post as well as classes focused on serving many different audiences.

Show, Don’t Tell: Using Visual Storytelling through Comics to Overcome Consumer Health Barriers

On Tuesday, Brittany Netherton, Darien Library, Graphic Medicine International Collective, KC Councilor, Southern Connecticut State University, Latha Swamy, City of New Haven and Sarah Levin-Lederer, MPH, NNLM Region 7 provided an interactive workshop including Round Tables.

This interactive workshop brought together presenters from library, communications, medical, and public health backgrounds to demonstrate how Graphic Medicine, comics about community and public health, and other visual representations of health-related stories can reduce critical information barriers, foster creative expression and problem-solving, and help disseminate health information to the public. You can access the handout from their presentation:

Graphic Medicine Resource Guide

Brittany’s takeaway 

My big takeaway is that everyone who came to the workshop was engaged and excited about Graphic Medicine. I was invited to present on Graphic Medicine at the CLA Readers Advisory Round Table meeting on May 20^th by an attendee. I got several questions about Graphic Medicine works for a young adult/teen audience, if that’s something NNLM might want to do a program on. 

Final Wrap-up

NNLM appreciates the amazing work of libraries in our region who support their communities every day. While NNLM Region 7 was able to provide sponsorships for the Vermont Library Association and the Maine Library Association conferences in May 2025, we were unable to attend those meetings in person. We would still love to connect with you and all our region members. Please reach out anytime!! We would love to hear what you are working on and how we can support health information access in your community.  Bennie.finch@umassmed.edu or nnlm-region7@umassmed.edu