Aug
27
Posted by nnlmscr on August 27th, 2019
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) has partnered with national associations to carry out health programs and initiatives with public libraries, to provide health information and services to patrons. NNLM network member libraries have partnered with community partners to carry out heath related programming, at times incorporating health devices into their collections and even hosting health events ranging from fitness classes to health screenings. Our Consumer Health Coordinator, Debbie Montenegro, has written a three-part series to report on her very busy summer of working with public libraries in the South Central Region (SCR). This is Part 2.
NNLM has collaborated with several national partners to incorporate health and wellness programming into libraries and other organizations, with the purpose of bringing access to health information into communities. One partnership is with the Collaborative Summer Library Program to bring health programming to public libraries for summer reading. Summer Reading is a big deal for public libraries, as it is their busiest time. School is out and families with young children are looking for summer activities.
For three years, NNLM has and will create the NNLM Summer Health Programming Manual as a companion to CSLP’s full summer manual. For 2019, the summer reading theme is Space, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. NNLM also partnered with network members to carry out space-related programs.
One program in particular was the “Library Moon Walk” and involved three library systems and was funded by the NNLM Middle Atlantic Region (MAR):
A “walk” from Upstate New York to the Moon is approximately 238,900 miles. But that’s not stopping librarians and their patrons from giving it their best shot with the Library Moon Walk! Librarians from the Mohawk Valley, Southern Adirondack, and Upper Hudson Library Systems received funding from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region to get their patrons moving, dancing, and learning about health and wellness.
To see the manual and related webinars, check out our summer reading page here: https://nnlm.gov/initiatives/summer-reading
To see more about this program, check out the Library Moon Walk Page here: https://librarymoonwalk.sals.edu