That last bit, “…accessible and affordable for everyone,” sounds as if a public library thought of it. It does, in fact, match the criteria for a Summer Wellness Challenge that the Kokomo-Howard County (Indiana) Public Library (KHCPL), is currently running for staff.

The handout has the look of a game board or bingo card, with topical column headings such as “Time to Eat” and “Take a Hike.” Somehow, the perky appearance and 25 extremely simple activities make it seem inviting, more like play than something the doctor ordered. Staff were given several challenge levels to choose from, ranging from 10 to 20 activities. The challenge is a pilot program; the goal is to see if the library should try something similar on a larger scale to raise wellness awareness and motivation in the community.

Image courtesy of Kokomo-Howard County Public Library.

Offering a range of activities that are accessible to all is more difficult than it may appear. Transportation, for example, may not be readily available to access a park or a farmer’s market. In response to the invisible barriers some participants might have, the highest level of completion is 20 out of 25 activities. This alleviates the stress of not having access to wearable fitness technology, a smartphone app, or even a pedometer for the “Walk 10,000 steps in one day” challenge or allows the person with osteoporosis to skip a challenge like “try three yoga poses.” The 25 activities selected were purposefully low-tech and readily achievable despite any number of personal differences including neighborhoods, income levels, and general health.

Because the pilot is being done with employees, it was easy to get additional information via a short survey. About two-thirds of the staff responded to the survey. In order to gain insight into their response one question asked was, “If you plan to participate, what is your primary motivation?” Of the choices provided, most want to be healthier, but significant percentages just thought it looked like fun or saw it as a positive team experience. (See pie chart below). Of respondents, 60 percent plan to participate in the challenge, 25 percent do not plan to participate, and 15 percent were undecided when they filled out the survey. We also learned that our staff is a great pilot group for the challenge in that 39 percent of them exercise only occasionally or never, so they have plenty of room for growth in developing healthy habits. Only 18 percent of respondents exercise four times per week or more.

An optional comment section of the survey was also enlightening. Some respondents made their choice to participate based solely on the rewards offered whereas others didn’t care about external incentives at all. Positive comments focused on the number of choices given, saw it as an alternative to workout videos, or emphasized that it was plain fun. They also emphasized the additional motivation it provided: “I am really enjoying this challenge. I have gotten back into some healthy habits that I had gotten out of. And I hope before it’s done, I add some new healthy habits.” One comment said, “Even if I don’t participate, I think it is a great idea.”

KHCPL’s tentative conclusions are as follows:

• More people are willing to choose healthy behaviors if the opportunities focus on something beyond health, e.g. their sense of fun or their desire to be a team player.
• Freedom of choice is an appealing element in wellness activities.
• Incentives that are perceived as valuable will net some wellness efforts, at least while the incentives are offered.

Once the Wellness Challenge has ended, KHCPL will assess whether something as simple as a grid of suggested activities could help to motivate community residents to improve their wellness.

Resources

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/

The post Summer Wellness Challenge first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The primary goal of Health Happens in Libraries is to increase the capacity of library staff  to respond to patron requests for information regarding the Affordable Care Act. Libraries are uniquely situated to help patrons sift through the information and point them in the direction of qualified, professional help. Librarians can take part in regular free webinars and other training opportunities through the program. Additionally, they may subscribe to news updates to keep abreast of trends and hot topics.

Health Happens in Libraries also provides librarians a chance to share their success stories so we can all generate new ideas for health programming. Check out out the Library Stories section – you’ll find tons of great ideas: http://www.webjunction.org/explore-topics/ehealth/library-stories.html.

References
[1]http://webjunction.org/explore-topics/ehealth.html

Further Reading
http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/OppForAll2.pdf

The post Health Happens in Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The MVPL Seed Library launched in April 2013 with a plant exchange. Patrons were invited to bring culls, clippings, and spare seedlings to trade with their neighbors. A blurb on the flyer let people know that we were also accepting donations for our new seed library. Over the course of three hours on a Saturday, more than 120 patrons exchanged over 400 plants, and we received enough seeds to start our library.

How the Seed Library Works

We accept all kinds of seed donations, of both commercially packaged and saved seed. If the donation is saved seed, we ask donors to fill out a form, providing information such as variety, harvest year and location, contact information, and growing notes. We repackage donations into coin envelopes, cramming as much of that information as possible onto a mailing label and sticking it on the front.

Based on practices at other seed libraries, I decided that each envelope should contain enough seed for three to five plants. Given that not all seeds germinate, that means there are generally between nine and fifteen seeds in each packet. Some seeds are incredibly tiny––dust sized even––and for those we generally disregard the rule and just put a pinch in each envelope. Conversely, some seeds are quite large, and consequently those  envelopes will contain fewer seeds.

When we first started, we put the packets in a Tupperware container and stuck it underneath our stairs. Nearly a year later, we have enough seeds for two containers, and large metal recipe file drawer. We’re in the process of moving to a larger standing file cabinet.

Due to lack of time, we don’t strictly monitor what is being “checked out,” but we do have a sign-out sheet where people write their name, the seeds they’ve taken, and can include an email address if they are interested in our gardening programs or in volunteering. I currently have a list of nearly 150 names.

Staffing

When we started, we had the notion that we would find interested volunteers to run our seed library. Our model was based on the Potrero Hill branch of the San Francisco Library, whose seed library is primarily stocked and maintained by a local gardening organization. While nearly a year later we have a core group of about six volunteers that help with stocking and programming, we are still managing the library ourselves. This is because it has proved to be an excellent way to reach out to gardeners and grow community interest in the library. Also, keeping control has let me add resources and re-envision operations in response to our community.

I am still the sole staff member working on the library. The time commitment varies on my end. Last year, after the initial setup, I spent an hour or so each week on maintenance and stocking. This year, our success will probably increase the amount of time needed on my end. Right now we’re ramping up for the growing season, so I’ve got a group of volunteers meeting for an hour and a half each week, and then I’m probably spending an additional two hours each week prepping labels, doing website maintenance, and planning programs. This total time will most likely scale back in fall and winter.

Programming

Programming has been integral in building interest and community. As mentioned earlier, we used a plant exchange to collect the donations used to start the library. The success of this event also created an initial pleasant buzz (apparently our plant exchange was more civilized and friendly than another local plant exchange).

A few weeks after launching the library, Patrick O’Connor from the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (BASIL) came to the library to give a talk about saving seeds. Before the event we were thinking that seed saving was an activity we could get everyone to participate in, and that the seed library would eventually be entirely stocked with saved seeds. However this talk, which attracted twenty-one attendees, helped us to realize that seed saving was an activity that very often required skill and a large amount of square footage, in addition to desire and enthusiasm. We started to think about adjusting our plan for restocking.

Next I found a local ally in Patricia Larenas, through her lovely blog, Urban Artichoke. In her blog, Larenas talked about seed saving––she does seed trials for Seed Saver’s Exchange, and for local bean company Rancho Gordo as a “bean buddy.” Larenas’s knowledge and enthusiasm helped build our understanding of the needs of local gardeners and seed savers, as well as attracting new seed library patrons. Larenas gave two talks for us. In early May, a few weeks after O’Connor’s seed saving talk, she presented to twenty-one patrons on starting plants from seeds. Then in mid-August, she spoke to sixty patrons about planning, growing, and eating a kitchen garden.

Our city has a local hero, Firefighter Mike. In addition to helping keep our city safe, Firefighter Mike has a love of vegetable gardening. He has built gardens at two of our city’s fire stations. His current post is just under three-fourths of a mile from the library, so one morning in mid July we invited patrons to walk or roll over there for a tour of his garden. Our garden visit let us connect with our community in a new way. We took a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood, chatting about the gardens we passed, and then heard an inspirational story from a passionate gardener. We saw some great looking plants and some cool fire trucks, too. We had thirty-two patrons of all ages join us for this event, the littlest one in his own firefighter suit.

At the end of the season, we put on two final programs. In August, our crop swap ended up being much smaller than the plant exchange, with only twelve attendees. However, there was a lot of delicious produce exchanged, and one woman even made homemade jam. In October we put on another talk about seed saving, given by Santa Clara county master gardener Hillie Salo to twenty-one attendees.

Our library is also lucky enough to host ongoing programing by two other groups––the Santa Clara County Master Gardeners, who come in every eight weeks, and the Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency, which presents talks on water-wise gardening and landscaping.

In 2014, we have found more opportunities to interact with the gardening community. Our second annual plant exchange took place at the end of March. We are partnering with five other seed libraries and Hillie Salo to present Silicon Valley Grows, a seed-saving program modeled on One Book, One Community programs. We’re talking to a group that works to create school gardens and kid gardening programs. I have hopes of doing a handson tomato planting, followed by a tomato tasting at the end of the season. Seed Saving versus

Seed Sharing

Seed libraries have a strong association with seed saving. Seed saving is exactly what it sounds like: the practice of preserving seeds from plants in order to grow them next season. When we started, our vision was that the library would be restocked with primarily saved seed. However, seed
saving can actually be quite complicated! Some plants, such as beans and tomatoes, are fairly easy to save, but others, such as corn, require that a large number of plants be grown in order to preserve genetic diversity. And some plants, such as squash and melons, need to have their flowers bagged in order to ensure that the next generation will be viable and, well, edible. Education in seed saving has been part of our mission, but for new gardeners who just want to see if they can grow a pumpkin, seed saving may be too complicated, time-consuming, or confusing. And for urban and suburban gardeners, who may have smaller plots, growing the minimum number of plants
may be impossible.

Additionally, a slight majority of our donations are actually opened commercial seed packets. For those smaller plots in urban and suburban gardens, a packet may contain too many seeds. So, instead of letting open packets languish in the shed, gardeners bring their leftovers to share. Some of these packets are actually hybrid varieties, and hybrid plants don’t create seed that will give you the same lovely plant the next year. We still put these hybrid seeds into the library, although we do label them. So the focus of our seed library is more on seed sharing, rather than seed saving.

Why Seed Libraries Belong in Public Libraries

Just as traditional libraries enrich a community by providing a way to share books, seed libraries enrich the gardening community by allowing gardeners to share seeds. There are many parallels.

Seed libraries offer a more efficient way to deploy community resources. They encourage experimentation, affording gardeners (or aspiring gardeners) a low-risk way to try something new. They provide a supported entrance into the gardening world for novices. And seed libraries support
a kind-of botanical literacy, teaching people what different plants look like and how they grow.

Seed libraries also support information sharing and preservation. Gardening is a localized knowledge, built through experience. While written guidelines can be helpful, person-to-person information sharing is how gardeners can learn how to be successful in their own unique environments.
Localized knowledge can tell a gardener what the fog in San Francisco does to tomatoes, for example, or when to actually start seeds if your region never experiences a “first frost.” As our climate changes, it will be even more important to preserve and share this understanding of how to garden in a range of conditions.

Start It Up!

For a minimal initial investment, a seed library creates a new way for the community to engage with your library. While some seed libraries are comprehensively indexed, elaborate affairs, a simple box of seeds is enough to sow interest in both veteran and novice gardeners.

Resources

In addition to this article, there are a number of excellent resources that will help create the seed library that’s right for your community.

• The backbone of our seed library community is Richmond Grows! The website includes information on saving seeds and on starting a seed library, and has a Spanish translation available.
• The Richmond Grows! network includes two essential resources:
  1. The Seed Libraries page has videos explaining different seed library systems, a page of featured libraries as examples, a resource page, and a discussion forum.
  2. The Seed Library Social Network has a member map, blog, and drop box with documents that can be repurposed in new seed libraries.
  3. The Center for the New American
• Dream hosted a webinar on starting seed libraries. If you’re looking to run a more elaborate seed library, the librarians who present give helpful information for a more detailed planning process and organization.
• In addition to selling seeds, Seed Saver’s Exchange is a well-established resource for information on saving seeds, sustainable agriculture, and preserving our food heritage. Their series of webinars is particularly illuminating.

The post Simple Steps to Starting a Seed Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

We’ve always known that food brings people together, but we didn’t know that Lunch at the Library would build such a strong bond with our community. And, it’s only been a few weeks since our library began this exciting new program.

Kids up to age 18 munch on daily delectables, feast on books, and eagerly eat up story times in the library. The consumption of lunch and books is perfectly paired with summer reading activities—all of which promote the healthy cycle of borrow-read-return-repeat. Fresh, delicious lunches arrive daily, while volunteers and/or school food service personnel take care of delivery, distribution, and leftover pick-up. Attendance at our library’s Lunch at the Library grows each day, adding to the number of lunches ordered and the number of kids served. The kids eating at our libraries are delighted with their very own tray of treats, often giggling with excitement over their favorites.

Summer lunch programs are popping up in public libraries around the country, and are made possible by partnerships with federal or state hunger organizations, food banks, foundations, and other nonprofit organizations. Our library was invited to participate by Patrice Chamberlain, Director of the California Summer Meal Coalition (CSMC), and Natalie Cole, Associate Executive Director of the California Library Association (CLA), who both co-direct “Lunch at the Library.” “Lunch at the Library” began in 2013and is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.  Everything is provided:  training, meetings with meal sponsors, evaluation tools to analyze data; resources such as recruiting, working with volunteers, and support for developing programs to complement the service.  As a result of CLA and CSMC involvement in expanding Lunch at the Library in California, the program has expanded to nineteen library systems throughout the state.

Similar programs have sprouted up throughout the country. Ypsilanti District Library, Michigan hosts Lunch and Listen; The Public Library of Cincinnati hosts Summer Learning-Summer Lunch; and at St. Louis County Library, Free Lunches at SLCL;  Miami-Dade Public Library, Lunch is @ the Library;  and Prince their George (Maryland), Meet Up and Eat Up. Public libraries are joining to fill the hunger and reading void that occurs during the summer months with nutrition for both body and brain.

Kristin Sorth, director of St. Louis County Library stated, “Studies show that hunger is a barrier to learning.”¹ If hunger is a barrier, then summer lunch programs are breaking down that barrier and encouraging young readers to come inside, be nourished and grow at the public library. The lunch table is a good place for all of us to grow.

To read more about summer lunch at public libraries:

California Library Association, “Lunch at the Library: Program Information,”

California Summer Meal Coalition, http://www.summermealcoalition.org/about-us/

Blythe Bernhard, “Free Summer Lunches provided for children at libraries, other sites,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 4, 2014,

Kimberli Buckley, “Summer Reading Festival 2014: Summer Lunch @ the Library,” Contra Costa County Library, June 2014,

Matt Durr, “Free Summer Lunch Program for Kids being hosted at Ypsilanti District Library,” Ypsilanti News, June 23, 2014,

Jane Henderson, “3 County Libraries to offer Free Lunches for kids,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 27, 2014,

Katy Murphy, “Food for Thought: This Summer Oakland Libraries are serving free lunches to children, five days a week,” San Jose Mercury News, August 3, 2012,

Suburban Life Media, “West Chicago Library, D-33 Team up for Summer Lunch program,” mySuburbanLife.com, June 26, 2014,

Resources

1. 3 County Libraries to offer Free Lunches for kids

The post Calling Kids to the Library Lunch Table first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The speakers provided an overview of what two libraries were able to accomplish in health literacy in their community, as well as advice for how to set up similar programs in your own library. National Institutes of Health offers “Partners in Research” grants. Ann Arbor District Library and the University of Michigan Taubman Health Sciences Library, along with the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research, partnered to “address the need for community engagement in clinical research by incorporating community expertise and knowledge in several innovative strategies designed to raise the level of literacy, awareness, and participation in clinical research.”

The partners planned Health Research Forums on 11 topics that were conducted over an 18 month period at the Ann Arbor District Library:

• Genetic Risks and Cancer
• Medical Innovations
• Overcoming Obesity
• Understanding Alzheimers
• Hungry Planet, Hungry Schools
• Women’s Heart & Health
• OCD Across the Lifespan
• Low Vision & Glaucoma
• The Other Women’s Cancers
• Prevention & Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes
• From Illness to Activist: Kris Carr Author of ‘Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips’

Their biggest turn-out was for “Overcoming Obesity” because they got “The Biggest Loser” star Pete Thomas to come as their lay expert. Surprisingly, patrons asked more questions of the researchers! Both libraries set up tables in the foyer to promote their health resources and the event was promoted on both Facebook and Twitter (with Kate live-tweeting each event).

Even without a grant, libraries can find partners who will work with them for free! Any organization funded by NIH has to go out in the community as part of their grant obligations, so look for those medical centers. Researchers always need people in clinical trials and they don’t want to be paid to come out and recruit. Other non-profit health organizations may also be willing to partner to provide free health literacy events.

Choate and Saylor recommended libraries look for their state’s outreach libraries and see if they can do trainings for patrons and/or staff. It could also be helpful to check with the State or County Health Department to see what health issues are the biggest concerns in your community. Many organizations are out there that are enthusiastic about spreading health literacy. Most are willing to partner with the public library for FREE since we often have the community space needed for such events as well as the consumers they need to reach.

The post Dispatches from PLA 2014: Creating a Health Literate City first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Health is a broad and inclusive overarching theme that allows for a huge selection of programs to be developed. Fitness instructors may be willing to teach a class at the library. For example, at one PPLD location, yoga instructors-in-training volunteered to teach classes. Nutritionists or dietitians can speak about healthy eating. Outdoor recreation programs that fit your community’s geography and tastes can be developed. New York Public Library has an entire Health, Fitness and Wellness topic category for their classes. Pima County Public Library, Tucson, Az., even added registered nurses to their libraries.[1]

Partnership options for promoting health are also a possibility. In 2012, PPLD started working with Bonfils Blood Center to regularly hold blood drives at several libraries. The Ronald McDonald Caremobile parks in many of the library lots, and provides medical services to kids. The library helps to promote these events to patrons and provides the space. For another form of partnership, some medical groups for low income clients or those with low or no medical insurance may have an outreach department. Staff from our local medical service, Peak Vista, have come to library events and set up information tables in the lobby. They have been able to connect with new people, and inform them of the services they have available and the requirements to sign up for the program.

Library outreach at community health events can provide you with an audience for general library services, as well as health-specific information. You may also be able to develop relationships with people from other service organizations who can then become a partner for other healthy endeavors. Libraries are part of the greater public good. Connecting people to health information can become an integral part of library services that works to make everyday life better for our patrons.

The post Promoting Healthy Lives in the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.