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Guide 4: Plan Activities to Reach Project Goals |
Now that you have done your community assessment and defined your goals, you can think about activities that might meet the needs of your community. What sort of activities would engage your community partners?
Here are some activities which public libraries and community groups have worked on together:
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Many libraries and community organizations have engaged in partnerships to promote access to health information and health literacy.
The following is a selection of partnerships which have activities that your library and local community organization might want to consider implementing.
Community Outreach Projects
Ann Arbor District Library (part of the Healthy People Library
Project)
Media Outreach, Promotional Giveaways, as well as Outreach to
Community Leaders, Senior Citizens and Teens.
Community Tool Box
The Community Toolbox provides over 6,000 pages of practical
skill-building information on over 250 different topics. Topic
sections include step-by-step instruction, examples,
check-lists, and related resources. The goal is to support your
work in promoting community health and development.
Detroit
Communtity AIDS Library
The Goal for this project was to provide a gateway to local and
worldwide HIV/AIDS information resources for Detroit and
Southeastern Michigan. Community outreach is essential to
ensure that the library will continue growing as a health
information portal for the community. An online library was
created in 1995 through a partnership of academic health
sciences, medical hospital and public libraries and three urban
community-based organizations serving HIV/AIDS infected and
affected persons: Community Health Awareness Group, Friends
Alliance and Project, and Survival.
Consumer Health Collections
The
Consumer Health Collection at the Markdale library in Southern
Ontario
The health and medical collection was examined as an example of
a collection that helps people make better, more informed,
healthier decisions. The ten most popular titles circulated a
total of 330 times. The total cost of the books was $202.95;
the per use cost was $0.62; and the total value to the
community $66,973. See how this library evaluates it's
contribution to the community.
St.
Mary's library in Southern Ontario
A report on usage from a library survey notes that health and
medical information lead the way in terms of information sought
to assist in the decision-making process. 47.5% of the survey
respondents use health and medical information.
Inova Health System partners with public libraries.
Learn about the possibility of corporate partnership. Inova
participated in two partnerships with the Fairfax County Public
Library and the Alexandria City Library. In addition to the
Inova HealthSource classes offered at library branches, both
partnerships worked on several joint projects including
establishing a community resource center at Beatley Central
Library to provide health information materials and access to
Inova's automated Health Information Library.
Expanding the
Capacity of the Public Library: Partnerships with Community
Based Environmental Groups.
This website lists a smattering of public library and
community partnerships.
In Solon Iowa: Frustrated with the limited information on
sustainable organic farming methods, three residents, started a
group called Prairie Talk. Initially, the group wanted to
develop a collection of materials they could share that would
be housed in one of their homes. Yet the group decided to think
public. "I wanted my community to share resources and the
library was the best place to do that." Prairie Talk's
sustainable farming resource center at the Solon Public Library
was born. The collection has been an invaluable resource for
not only the immediate town, but also for the larger midwest
farming community.
Cultural and Bilingual Information Projects
Accessing Online Information for Immigrant and Refugee Health This project seeks to provide access to internet-based health information for members of seven immigrant communities in Seattle, in a way that is culturally meaningful.
Hmong Health Information Project Its mission is to develop health information resources, services and model programs to improve Hmong patient-health professional communication.
HICUP for Good Health: Bilingual English/Chinese health
information for clinicians and educators.
This collaboration of public library, medical library and
chinese health information center resulted in a web site which
has become nationally recognized.
Education
Community
Partnerships for Information Literacy
The Yakima Valley Regional Library System partnered with the
Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, the American Cancer Society,
the American Lung Association, the Yakima Health District, and
Wellness House.
Some project goals:
- Educate librarians, health resource coordinators, clinicians, social services workers, and the general public in use of health information resources including Web sites and libraries/ resource centers
- Help to select physical materials and web resources related to cancer
- Pool resources. For example, establish an online inventory of partner organizations' books, journals, and pamphlets
Congregation
Healthy Heart Action Partnership
The main aspect of this grant is the Internet Access and
Training Project. The six churches, community center, and two
libraries listed below are participating in this project to
provide Internet Access and training with the goal of improving
access to health knowledge on the World Wide Web.
Women's Health Network for Minority Consumer Health
Outreach (part of the Healthy People Library
Project)
Community and Library worked together to provide health
information to clinics and also a multimedia center where
members of the public can visit to increase their knowlege.
Health Information for Teens Projects
Teen CARE
Network
The mission of the Teen CARE Network library-community agency
partnership is to improve access to quality health information
for Aurora teens and their parents.
Healthy Community Partnership, DesPlaines, IL
In DesPlaines, the public library, the public health
department, churches, city agencies and more have all made a
commitment to work together to meet community needs. One of the
health related task forces are: Healthy Community
Partnership and Healthy Youth Task Force.
Additional Reading:
Coalter, F. Realising the Potential of Cultural Services: The Case for Libraries Centre for Leisure Research at the University of Edinburgh. 2001.
Community Tool Box Providing over 6,000 pages of practical skill-building information on over 250 different topics. Topic sections include step-by-step instruction, examples, check-lists, and related resources.
How Librarians and Libraries Help To break away from past evaluation models, today's tools must focus on impact indicators that reflect the social context in which individuals access and use digital community services. But to develop such context-based tools, LIS researchers need to address: how citizens and communities benefit from public library digital community services, and how these services build community.
"Methods" In: Program Planning and Proposal Writing. The Grantmanship Magazine, 1980.
Nelson, S. The New Planning for Results: A Streamlined Approach. Chicago, IL: ALA. 2001
The Library's Contribution to Your Community: A Resource Manual for Libraries to Document their Social and Economic Contribution to the Local Community. Southern Ontario Library Services. © 1998.
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