Welcome to the NNLM Reading Club Advisory Group!

Posted by benniefinch on October 28th, 2024 Posted in: Blog

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What is the NNLM Reading Club and the NNLM Reading Club Advisory Group?

The NNLM Reading Club team compiles all the materials needed to host your own book discussion. Our online toolkit is free to access and easy to use. We feature three books each month along with freely accessible health information resources. The NNLM Reading Club Advisory Group is made up of network members who are assisting in the development of the monthly online toolkits which support health literacy and book discussions related to health and health topics.

How did the NNLM Reading Club Advisory Group come about?

In early 2024, our NNLM staff team included Darlene Kaskie (one of the co-founders) from Region 6, Faith Steele from Region 1, and Bennie Finch from Region 7. We heard from libraries about how they were using the toolkits yet wanted a more formal process to gather their ideas for monthly Reading Club topics and book selections. The Advisory Group helps meet that aim and also offers participants the opportunity to engage with other NNLM members from their own, as well as other, regions. Faith Steele had the idea of developing an Advisory Group and this has been a tremendous success.

We sent out a call for applications for the NNLM Reading Club Advisory Group and now have a great team of volunteers:

• Michele Spatz, retired NNLM Region 5 staff member and co-founder of the NNLM Reading Club. She currently helps with organizing and facilitating the group. NNLM Region 5
• Joy Worland, Consultant for Continuing Education and Small and Rural Libraries at the Vermont Department of Libraries. NNLM Region 7
• Matthew Noe, Lead Collection and Knowledge Management Librarian for the Countway Library at Harvard Medical School. Matthew previously worked with NNLM Region 7 to develop the Graphic Medicine kits which still circulate in Region 7. NNLM Region 7
• Stephanie Michaels, Librarian at the State Library of Ohio. NNLM Region 6
• Judy Lee, Director of Medical Library Services, Maimonides Medical Center. NNLM Region 1
• Arpita Bose, Health Sciences Library Director, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. NNLM Region 7
• Katie Ball, Sacramento Public Library. Katie oversees their health literacy programs. NNLM Region 5
• Dianne Aldrich, Assistant Director of Library Services, Rocky Vista University. NNLM Region 4

This group has jumped right in, helping us to source books for future health topics, reviewing books and making final recommendations, and creating book discussion guides. In October, we featured the books chosen by the NNLM Reading Club Advisory Group on Forensic Medicine, as well as other resources that they have found and created. We could not be more excited and are so grateful for their expertise and help!

History of the NNLM Reading Club

The NNLM Reading Club was created in 2018 to support libraries hosting book discussions around health as a “ready to use” health literacy program. Over time, this has looked differently, but the online toolkit has remained consistent over the past 5+ years. After 5 years, we have an online toolkit with 44 health topics and book club materials for over 130 titles. We also have the Reading Club Collection which features the book discussion guides for the books selected from 2018-2021.

Want to get involved?

If this sounds interesting, please reach out and I can share information about the group that will be forming for next year.  Each group is appointed for one year, May 1-April 30.