Ellen L. Rubenstein

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.

Rural communities in the United States struggle with many health inequities that predate the COVID‐19 Pandemic. This poster analyzes how public libraries responded to COVID‐19 from March 2020 through March 2021 by utilizing the social media platform Facebook to continue sharing content that supports community health and wellness. It situates these responses in the context of health inequities in rural America. Although libraries in different parts of the country responded to COVID‐19 in unique ways, common practices include sharing timely information about the pandemic and social services; adapting services to continue serving communities safely; and providing enriching educational content that also addresses social determinants of health. The poster concludes with a call to better understand the work small and rural public librarians do to address health inequities.

This study examined how public libraries and library staff in two systems in a midwestern state provide health information, particularly because of the state’s low health ranking. This article focuses on a subset of the study’s findings, highlighting staff preparedness to offer health information, perceptions about health literacy, and the role of the Medical Library Association’s consumer health information specialist (CHIS) certification in contributing to knowledge and understanding of health information issues. I interviewed 38 public library staff and received background information from four other individuals with knowledge of health information access in the state. Qualitative analysis indicated that library staff exhibited varying abilities and knowledge about health information and health literacy. Librarians with CHIS certification, provided in one system, were more comfortable with health information sources and services than others, as were their colleagues. Public libraries should consider providing more health information training to address the needs of their communities.

The past five years have featured increased multidisciplinary interest in how health happens in public libraries. This panel will explore ethical and emerging issues associated with conducting research on this topic. After lightning talks from five panelists, the audience will engage in interactive, small group discussions focused on how we can form and sustain meaningful research relationships with public libraries and public librarians, for health‐related and for other research. Through this discussion, we will outline new research directions on how health happens in public libraries and challenge ourselves to do more to understand this and other processes in public libraries.

Interest in consumer health information has blossomed since the mid-twentieth century. Consumers have become much more involved in decisions related to their health care and in seeking information about health issues. Public libraries, as community organizations, have a long history of facilitating access to health information, and currently offer important resources such as computers and free Wi-Fi that facilitate access, especially for people who do not have computers or Internet at home. With the ubiquity and ease of access to online health information, however, various challenges arise. Consumers often lack the knowledge or ability to find information or to evaluate critically the information they find. Many public librarians also often have limited proficiency or experience in helping patrons with their health-related information needs. Although there are various opportunities for public librarians to obtain training in health information, library and information science students considering public librarianship are often not aware that there is a benefit, as well as a responsibility, to becoming knowledgeable about health information. This article discusses issues related to health information access as it relates to public libraries, and suggests practice-based options that could be useful for students preparing for careers in public libraries.

This article focuses on the health information needs of the State of Oklahoma, which ranks 45th among all 50 states in the health status of its citizens. A deficit in collections technology, a lack of knowledge about medical information in service staff, and poor marketing and outreach efforts in lightly populated counties and towns have worked against the provision of solid health information to the populace. The author points out how grants have provided funding for collaboration, partnerships, and training to certification (Medical Library Association’s Consumer Health Information Specialist Certification [CHIS]) for many staff as health information specialists. Although the issue of health information is still significant in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma library community has made inroads in handling a severe community problem in which the author believes that U.S. public libraries should be heavily involved.

Public libraries offer multiple resources and programs to community members at all socio-economic levels. One area that public libraries struggle with is the provision of consumer health information. This article reports on a qualitative study examining the practices of 38 public library staff in 18 libraries in Oklahoma, highlighting their experiences and perceptions about providing health information. The results indicate that many staff were unsure of the overall health needs of their communities. Many staff found fielding health information questions to be challenging, including issues related to understanding questions, providing online resources, and the need for more training.

This study investigated 18 libraries in two public library systems in Oklahoma to find out how they are addressing health literacy and facilitating access to consumer health information; how library staff members view their roles and responsibilities relative to health information and health literacy; what challenges libraries face; and what strategies are being used. Staff members recognized several challenges to providing health information and to developing programs, including staff and patron difficulties with reference interviews, and patron lack of awareness of library resources. Staff members often had only a partial understanding of health literacy, and were unaware of system strategies to address health literacy or provision of health information.

This poster reports on a study of 18 libraries in two public library systems in central Oklahoma. The project sought to gain an in‐depth understanding of how libraries are contributing to health information access and health literacy. The poster reports on preliminary results in regard to three aspects of the study: library personnel's perspectives on the roles and responsibilities of libraries in reference to health information and literacy, how staff assisted patrons with health questions, and how they defined “health literacy.” This research highlights disparities in library staff's understanding of health literacy, as well as some of the problems they encounter as they disseminate health information.

This research examines interactions among members of an online breast cancer community, focusing on how information and social support were exchanged, how these exchanges influenced health decisions, and how the community was integrated into participants' everyday lives. This article is the result of a 2‐year ethnography comprising online archives analysis, participant observation, and 31 interviews. In the course of the research, the findings revealed that, not only did participants exchange valuable information and helpful social support, there was often little separation between the two, with each overlaying the other throughout most interactions. Expressions of support permeated many informational messages and at the same time served as information to participants. This article argues that social support and information were inextricably connected within participant interactions and that social support is, itself, a form of information that impacts actions and emotional experiences, contributing to participants being able to make sense of their experiences and to move forward both physically and emotionally. This research builds on work in information science that looks at the ways in which people exchange information in informal environments and extends that research by drawing on conceptualizations of social support to exhibit the connections between social support and information.