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Apr
14
Posted by Sarah Levin-Lederer on April 14th, 2023
Posted in: Communities of Interest, Graphic Medicine
Tags: Community of Interest, graphic medicine
As the NNLM year draws to a close at the end of April, it’s time to look back at all we’ve accomplished since May, 2022.
Year 1 (2021-2022) was a year of restarting, expanding, and creating. Year 2 (2022-2023) was a year of growth for our Graphic Medicine Community of Interest (COI) and change for our book club kits.
The R7 Graphic Medicine COI started YR2 strong in May by hosting a graphic medicine virtual social, welcoming 24 colleagues from around the Network who participated in small group discussions and activities facilitated by COI members.
The COI met three times in YR2 and grew from 13 to over 20 members with more than 10 members actively participating in the final meeting of the year in March. We now have representatives from 6 of the 7 R7 states by adding a New Hampshire member this year. We’re still looking for a representative from Maine.
Besides growing the COI and hosting the virtual social, we became a hub of graphic medicine peer to peer sharing. And we had one COI member that received a Collection Equity Award to grow their graphic medicine collections.
Potential YR3 projects discussed by the COI include:
If you’re interested in connecting with or joining the COI, membership is always open and there is no requirements to attend meetings. Reach out to Sarah (sarah.levinlederer@umassmed.edu) to learn more or to be added to the COI list.
In early spring 2022 (end of YR1), our book club kits started circulating again. And Graphic Medicine Book Club Kits are now circulating at pre-hiatus levels.
YR2 saw a big change to kit requesting procedures. Kits are now loaned through Lamar Soutter Library InterLibrary Loan. Kits are still free, but are eight week loans (instead of six) and kits can no longer be requested months in advance.
Finally, we’re excited to announce the introduction of our 13th kit early in YR3! The Migrant Health kit will feature The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont, Drawn by New England Cartoonists.
The Migrant Health discussion guide was piloted as a part of the programming for the NLM traveling exhibit Outside/Inside: Immigration, Migration and Health Care in the United States hosted at the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Chan Medical School March 13-April 21.
Sign up for the R7 weekly listserv to make sure you don’t miss a class announcement, blog post or funding announcement.
Join R7 staff for NNLM Day at MLA on May 11 for updates on all of our programs including graphic medicine.
And if you’re attending the Rhode Island Library Association Annual Conference, COI member Dave Bartos, Cranston Public Library, and I will be presenting on Graphic Medicine in public libraries Wednesday morning.
ABOUT Sarah Levin-Lederer