Health, Libraries, Research and Education

Abstract

Researchers in LIS have been working on projects related to health and wellness in various environments, whether related to medical libraries, public libraries, health information behavior, or health information-related community interventions. At the same time, researchers have explored new methods to educate students on both research and on health and wellness as it relates to LIS. It is our goal to bring together the two and create a collaborative panel in which both the panelists and audience participate in a dialog that highlights our research and our engagement with our students over the past couple of years examining health information and practices in our libraries, communities, and classrooms.
 This non-traditional panel focuses on health and wellness research and its impact on student education and engagement in research activities. The session aims to provide an opportunity for both the organizers and the audience to share their research and/or research agendas and engage in conversations and feedback that can contribute to a cohesive understanding as to what researchers are doing in the area of health and wellness. Our objective is also to discuss current pedagogical practices or student engagement opportunities related to these topical areas. Some examples will be physical and mental health programs and services in public libraries, health literacy courses taught by LIS students in public libraries, health insurance education, using the OCLC Call to Action Opioid toolkit with public libraries, public library staff as health information facilitators, and much more.
 The session will begin with the Health SIG members presenting their research through five-minute lightning talks. While the panelists describe their research, they will begin creating a visualization on Google Jamboard that represents the research being discussed. After these first presentations, the audience will be invited to share their own research, which will also be added to the collaborative board. Throughout this process, participants will be invited to offer constructive feedback on each contributor’s ideas. Through this process, we hope to create an exciting, interactive session in which the SIG members and the audience will have the opportunity to share research and teaching strategies and potentially find new collaborators.