Health sciences library outreach to family caregivers: a call to service

Abstract

This commentary discusses the information needs of family caregivers and care recipients in the United States. Health sciences library services and outreach activities that support family caregivers include: (1) advocacy, (2) resource building, and (3) programming and education. Ethical issues related to the privacy and confidentiality of clients are outlined in the commentary for information service providers. Also, continuing professional education resources are identified to assist librarians in providing high-quality information services for this special family caregiver population, such as those designed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) through the NLM 4 Caregivers program.

Library services enriching community engagement for dementia care: The Tales & Travels Program at a Canadian Public Library as a case study

“…This outreach echoes health sciences libraries' efforts to reach out to family caregivers (Howrey, 2018) and could further enrich library services such as the "lost voices" project helping people with memory loss record their own oral histories (Farthing and Davies, 2017). Public libraries' community outreach expands collaborative social services, through notable works on social and information networks of homeless populations (e.g.…”

Community engagement of public libraries for ensuring tribal women’s health literacy in Bangladesh

“…Some studies have proposed ideas for public libraries in designing health information programmes and performing health information awareness activities in their communities. The suggestions include: libraries collaborating with medical practitioners or other members of the health community, and libraries developing effective new communication strategies to disseminate pertinent health information (Parker and Kreps, 2005); public libraries should follow five workspace principles to help people, groups and organizations become more health-literate: empowerment, equity, inclusion, collaboration and integration (Naccarella and Horwood, 2020); new job titles for librarians – for example, consumer health librarian, health information services librarian and health literacy librarian; and collaboration is key to developing and delivering health literacy training programmes for diverse user groups as well as the public (Vassilakaki and Moniarou-Papaconstaninou, 2023). Baba and Abrizah (2018) investigated how Malaysian libraries affect society by engaging with the neighbourhood, and emphasize library-led activities that support community access to collections, services and events.…”

Promoting nutrition literacy in children: a case study of a community partnership between a university and an elementary school

“…Health science librarians have advanced knowledge of finding and evaluating health resources and experience in developing curriculum, while public librarians are able to communicate effectively with diverse communities that have varying levels of information literacy, and combining these skillsets and resources provides the opportunity to serve a larger sector of the community [5]. Partnerships with public libraries allow academic health science librarians to utilize their expertise by providing health literacy programming to the general public; in particular, many workshops have been geared towards providing seniors with the basic health literacy resources [6][7][8][9]. Examples of innovative programs involving academic health science librarians and public libraries include inviting medical school staff and students [10] or library science students [11] to deliver public health literacy programming.…”

“…Examples of innovative programs involving academic health science librarians and public libraries include inviting medical school staff and students [10] or library science students [11] to deliver public health literacy programming. ; in particular, many workshops have been geared towards providing seniors with the basic health literacy resources [6][7][8][9]. Examples of innovative programs involving academic health science librarians and public libraries include inviting medical school staff and students [10] or library science students [11] to deliver public health literacy programming.…”