Engaging for Health in Rural and Underserved Communities

Background: A team of four librarians at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Health Sciences Library received funding from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) to conduct health literacy and consumer health training in five public libraries in rural and underserved areas of North Carolina. The goals of this project were to enable public library staff to provide consumer health information services through an introduction to health reference and health information resources, and to empower these libraries to lead a workshop for their community members.

Description: The team partnered with five public libraries in areas of the state with below average health literacy levels. We developed a two-part curriculum with assessments for the “train the trainer” sessions for public library staff. The first part was adapted from an NNLM curriculum and introduces library staff to consumer health reference and trustworthy sources of health information. The second part introduces the “Engage for Health” program curriculum developed by the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Library Association, and NNLM. This session encourages members of the community to actively engage in their health care and to ask questions of their doctors. We adapted NNLM evaluation tools for each group to assess participants’ learning.

Conclusion: In September and October 2019, we led sessions at five libraries reaching a total of 57 public library staff from 12 libraries. Two of the five libraries were able to lead at least one Engage for Health session in their communities prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lessons learned during this project will be applied to future outreach throughout the state.