Health Literacy Toolkit

October is Health Literacy Month. The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) and The American Library Association (ALA)’s Libraries Transform campaign have partnered to create a free toolkit for raising awareness of how libraries support health literacy in their communities.

More than 90 million U.S. adults have low health literacy, which measures the extent to which someone can access necessary health services, as well as how proficiently he or she can understand pertinent health information. Public, school, academic and special libraries play a key role in making quality health information accessible to all; this toolkit will equip library professionals with customizable tools to promote health literacy in October and throughout the year.

Please note: although library staff cannot answer specific questions about medical conditions or treatment options, they can guide their community members to trusted health information so that they can make educated decisions about their health and that of their loved ones.

Know about a resource that should be added to the Health Literacy Toolkit? Email us at campaign@ala.org.

BECAUSE STATEMENTS

BECAUSE GENETIC LITERACY CAN HELP YOU CRACK THE CODE.

Instagram Share: BECAUSE COMMUNITY SUPPORT HELPS PARENTS THRIVE.

Key Message(s):

Genetic information can help you know your risk for certain diseases. With the increased popularity of at-home ancestry testing, Americans are becoming more and more interested in genetics—but many still have limited knowledge of basic genetic concepts. Libraries are information hubs and education centers that can help their community members access trusted health information, including how to manage genetic risks for inherited diseases.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Libraries that often offer science-based programming could offer a program about genetics for families. You can also use resources from the National Library of Medicine such as Genetics Home Reference which includes easy to understand information for that can be shared with members of your community. Topics covered include health conditions, genes, and the Help Me Understand Genetics handbook.

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE INFORMATION CAN HELP YOU STAY HEART-HEALTHY.

Key Message(s):

Heart disease is America’s leading cause of death. Access to trusted health information from libraries can help people to learn more about the risk factors for heart disease and to discover best practices for staying heart-healthy. Heart disease is an unfortunate reality for millions of Americans, but libraries can play a key role in keeping their communities informed about health and prevention.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS.

Key Message(s):

We can fight stigma with trusted health information. One in five Americans lives with mental illness, but people struggling with mental health issues still face profound social stigma. Libraries can help by making sure their communities have free and confidential access to resources and information about how to get the help they need.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE LIBRARIES WELCOME FAMILIES OF ALL BACKGROUNDS.

Because we all deserve access ti quality health resources.

Key Message(s):

The Game of Health is a fun interactive game for public libraries to introduce patrons to trusted health information resources. Patrons will go through five steps of the game to learn ways to prepare, engage, and research health-related information. At the end of the game, patrons count their points and determine if they are a Healthy Sidekick or a Healthy Hero. Following the game, patrons will participate in a discussion and demonstration session to reflect on what they learned and learn how to use the three consumer health resources to take an active role in their health care.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE AN INFORMED COMMUNITY IS A HEALTHIER COMMUNITY.

Key Message(s):

Access to trustworthy information leads to better health outcomes. Numerous studies indicate that individuals with high health literacy are more likely to use preventative care and less likely to be hospitalized. Libraries help by providing access to quality health information for library users of all ages. The National Library of Medicine is one agency that produce resources that are freely available and accessible to everyone. This includes access to general health information for patients, their families, and friends.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Use this statement to promote health-related resources, services, and programming at your library—you could use it as a display in your collections, print it as a poster to raise awareness in your community, or share it on social media as part of a digital marketing campaign.
Partner with local health organizations to bring trusted experts to the library to share best practices and data relating to all kinds of health care topics.
Libraries could host a family event to have communities discuss what a healthy community looks like to them. There could be a variety of stations with different types of activities to get folks talking and to engage different ages, e.g. a table with building blocks for children to build a healthy neighborhood, or paper and cut-outs of neighborhood buildings where children and families could paste on ways to improve their neighborhood. This could be a hands-on facilitated discussion.
Libraries could host a community walk from the library with stops at other organizations in the neighborhood. At each stop there could be a different local agency that has information for community members and a hands-on activity. Along the path there could be signs with data about the health of their neighborhood gathered from the County Health Rankings web site, plus books about health and posters advertising upcoming wellness events. At the end of the walk, have people share their thoughts on the statistics that were shared (public health department may have more local data and be willing to participate as a potential partner). This could be done through short videos (that could be put on the library and other community web sites) or note cards that could then be posted on a bulletin board to capture what the community says.

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE CLINICAL TRIALS GET RESULTS.

Key Message(s):

Free resources at your library can help you research and act on your family health history. Your doctors can use this information to develop a complete picture of your health and assess your risk factors for disease. Libraries can help you take steps to be aware of how to reduce possible health risks.

The National Library of Medicine provides access to free, easy to understand, and reliable genetic health information. For those interested in “an introduction to fundamental topics related to human genetics, including illustrations and basic explanations of genetic concepts,” visit your local library and ask about the Help Me Understand Genetics resource from the National Library of Medicine.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Create a display on health research/medical ethics.
If your library participates in local health or resource fairs you can use this statement in conjunction with your health event promotion series.
This can be used to inform community members/library users that they can access additional information on medical research, clinical trials, and clinical studies from the library using resources from the National Library of Medicine.
A short program or exhibit could cover the clinical trial history of a successful drug or failed drug.
Host a viewing of the three-part documentary series “First in Human,” which follows patients who undergo clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE YOUR FAMILY HEALTH HISTORY MATTERS.

Key Message(s):

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

If your library provides genealogy services, you could create a display to bring about awareness of the importance of family health histories.
You could offer an additional section of a regular genealogy workshop to include information on family health histories and how to create one.
Make posters that tell short stories of both tracing family history and how it may have affected the health of those past.
Bring in a panel of experts to discuss case studies involving family health history and how that has made a difference in treatment.

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE YOUR DNA DOESN’T HAVE TO BE YOUR DESTINY.

Key Message(s):

74% of Americans are interested in exploring their DNA, and 81% of Americans know that genetic information is important information and that genetics influence the risk for certain diseases. Libraries promote genetic literacy by offering resources, programs, and expertise to interested patrons.

While many members of the public are interested in genetics, many have limited knowledge of basic genetic concepts. Libraries are a crucial resource for making sure people of all backgrounds can develop a better understanding of science, including health and genetics.

Libraries are information hubs and education centers to members of all ages in the communities they serve and can provide access to trusted health information on genetics for simple topics such as nearsightedness to more complicated topics such as specific genetic health conditions to precision medicine from the National Library of Medicine.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Libraries can promote learning family history; have programs on the interaction of genes, environment and lifestyle choices; promoting healthy choices for people with genetic predisposition to disease; host programs on genetics and health; have a book display on genetics and health; have a STEM program build a double helix and talk with students about genetics and health.
Libraries that often offer science based programming can think about offering a program on an introduction to genetics for families.
If your library has access to computers, laptops, or tablets you can consider using resources from the National Library of Medicine such as Genetics Home Reference which includes easy to understand information that can be shared with members of your community. Topics covered include health conditions, genes, and the Help Me Understand Genetics handbook.
Bring in a genetic counselor to lecture on the limitations of gene testing and its results as a decision-making tool.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE ANYONE CAN BE A CITIZEN SCIENTIST.

Key Message(s):

Libraries empower their communities to take part in scientific discovery. Everyone has an opportunity to contribute to our understanding of the world we live in by participating in citizen science projects in their communities and libraries.

Citizen science is when members of the public conduct scientific experiments, often working with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific organizations. Libraries can serve as a hub for citizen science in their communities, mobilizing patrons to get involved in collecting data and spreading the word about their efforts Participants can develop a deeper engagement in scientific and health literacy through their active involvement in the scientific process.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Libraries can promote local citizen science projects as well as plan to conduct their own.
Libraries can partner with local universities to provide STREAM learning opportunities for youth and families on topics that are relevant and of interest to their immediate community.
Most ages can participate and make meaningful contributions to citizen science through observation or passive projects.
Participants can do “soft” linguistics or Wikipedia projects by mining existing sources like books and magazines.
Create infographic posters that show the contributions of citizen scientists, or posters that point out activities as being citizen science (since not everyone realizes that it is).

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE HEALTH CARE IS NOT ONE SIZE FITS ALL.

Key Message(s):

Library resources help you ensure your treatment is tailor-made. By promoting health literacy and providing trusted health information, libraries empower their community members to pursue customized medical care tailored to their needs.

MMedical research has not always reflected the diversity of different populations, but precision medicine is "an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person". Using this approach doctors and researchers can better determine what treatment and prevention strategies work best for different groups of people. Initiatives like the All of Us research program from the National Institute of Health further the push for individually tailored medical care; libraries play a crucial role in promoting this program.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE HEALTH AND EDUCATION GO HAND-IN-HAND.

Key Message(s):

Students’ health is linked to academic achievement. Family engagement and health literacy programs at libraries can help students get the information and support they need to succeed in school.

Families with parents with higher health literacy (access to and understanding of quality health information) are more likely to engage in preventative care such a vaccinations and routine screenings. Libraries offer access to quality health care information and resources to help answer health and wellness questions.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Libraries can use this statement as part of their efforts to foster parents' skills in learning about children’s health.
Try a workshop or series of workshops for parents on childhood health topics like common childhood illnesses, nutrition, exercise, oral health, mental health, and good sleep habits, as well as ways for parents can advocate for their child's health (e.g. what questions to ask their child's healthcare provider and when to go to the ER). These workshops can have a simultaneous companion workshop for kids that would focus on the same topics but at an age appropriate level - the kids workshops could focus on an activity (e.g. healthy snacks; yoga or Zumba; oral care etc.). Offering a workshop for parents and a companion workshop for kids ensures parents have access to free child care while attending a corresponding program for adults. The workshops can be developed and offered with the help of local health professionals, health professions students; public health employees etc.
Libraries can host a Back to Healthy School event - with a series of presentations on kids’ health topics; the event could also have resource tables and interactive exhibits by community partners promoting healthy kids; if the event is in August, the library can highlight a tie-in with National Immunization Awareness Month, inviting public health staff to share immunization information.
Libraries can offer a child/parent healthy story time - a story with a health focus is read and this may be followed by a corresponding hands-on activity.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE THE RIGHT HEALTH QUESTIONS CAN LEAD TO BETTER HEALTH CARE.

Key Message(s):

Knowing how to communicate with your doctor can improve your treatment. How well you communicate with your doctor is an important part of getting the best health care for you or your loved one. The trusted health resources available at libraries can help you make sure that you understand your diagnosis and treatments.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Libraries can offer programs such as Engage for Health (a program in a box) to teach people how to take an active role in their health.
Libraries can use this statement when sharing resources about how to talk to your doctor.
Libraries can invite a health professional or health professions student to present a talk on how to advocate for yourself in the healthcare setting and why that is important.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE QUALITY INFORMATION HELPS YOU MAKE BETTER HEALTH DECISIONS.

Key Message(s):

As library staff, the role we play is to provide access to reliable and quality health information. Library staff are never expected to diagnose health conditions or interpret the information they find for others. Always recommend that your community members consult with a healthcare provider regarding the information that you provide to them.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) provides access to quality health information for various populations. The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) provides training at no cost to library staff on these health resources. Locate your regional NNLM office.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE INFORMATION CAN HELP PREVENT CHRONIC DISEASES.

Key Message(s):

Many members of your library community currently live with chronic illness, many of which are preventable. Use this statement to share information on how knowledge is power in the prevention and management of chronic illness.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

For National Health Observances that are related to chronic illnesses, you can promote library resources on that topic as well as any speakers/events that you may host in the library. If your library/library staff participates in chronic disease fundraisers/activities you could use this statement along with the promotion of those activities happening locally.
National Health Observances occur on specific days, weeks, or months and some are focused on specific chronic illness/conditions. This could be used in order to promote local resources/agencies that offer support to members of your community as well as increase awareness of various chronic illnesses.

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY INGREDIENT IN NUTRITION.

Key Message(s):

Libraries offer a variety of nutrition-based programs, including cooking, gardening, and story times to improve the health of their communities.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE LIBRARIANS CAN LEAD YOU ON THE PATH TO HEALTHY AGING.

Key Message(s):

As our community members continue to live longer, libraries must find ways to meet the needs of our older adults. Older adults having a space to gather and an opportunity to engage in conversation and activities with each other helps to improve their overall health.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE FAKE NEWS IS HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH.

Key Message(s):

Members of our community are constantly being overwhelmed with information regarding diseases/conditions, medications, medical interventions, and much more. Libraries can provide training on how to evaluate health information from mainstream media and other news sources.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Place this statement near your magazines/newspapers and computer use areas, or information commons in academic settings, to remind library users to be mindful of what they hear in the news. If your library offers a training session on evaluating health news, then this can be used within the promotion of that event.
Look at your local newspaper/media outlets and see what topics around health and wellness are currently being featured. Take materials from your library collection and create a display to provide accurate and reliable information on those topics. Then have this statement present as a way to promote where to find good information that is relevant to your specific library community.
Think about inviting a local news/media representative to talk about how they vet the information that they provide to their constituents.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE LIBRARIES ARE PARTNERS IN A HEALTHY COMMUNITY.

Key Message(s):

In order to make a greater impact in improving the health and wellness of members of their communities, libraries often partner with other agencies.

Libraries are a place for convening meetings and allowing community members to have meaningful conversations and safe havens. As libraries are used to teach new and strengthen existing skills there are opportunities to have library space used as a place to learn.

As libraries go directly into communities to bring high quality information and resources and connectivity such as bookmobiles, access to Wi-Fi internet, pop-up libraries and other technologies.

As communities respond and recover from civil unrest, natural disasters and other emergency and environmental incidents, libraries can serve as a place of community in addition to provision of resources on how to rebuild.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE RARE DISEASES ARE MORE COMMON THAN YOU THINK.

Key Message(s):

With such a high number of individuals across the nation who live with rare diseases, it’s likely that someone in your community has one.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Even if an individual doesn’t have a rare disease, this Because statement is a way to bring about awareness of rare diseases as well as those who manage them daily; it can be used in conjunction with national health observances, as well as health-focused social media trends like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
As libraries provide opportunities to learn about family histories/genealogy, this Because statement can highlight programs around family health histories.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE LANGUAGE SHOULDN’T BE A BARRIER TO HEALTH.

Key Message(s):

With the diverse communities that libraries serve, there could be multiple languages spoken in the physical buildings every day. Access to health information that can be used by multilingual families is important.

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Display this Because statement near the health- related books that you have with a list of resources available in other languages around health topics. This way, library users know that even if there aren’t books available in their native language, there are resources such as those from the National Library Medicine to provide access to reliable health information in various languages online.

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE AN INFORMED COMMUNITY IS A HEALTHIER COMMUNITY.

Key Message(s):

Promotional Use and Activity Suggestions:

Use this statement to promote health-related resources, services, and programming at your library—you could use it as a display in your collections, print it as a poster to raise awareness in your community, or share it on social media as part of a digital marketing campaign.
Partner with local health organizations to bring trusted experts to the library to share best practices and data relating to all kinds of health care topics.
Libraries could host a family event to have communities discuss what a healthy community looks like to them. There could be a variety of stations with different types of activities to get folks talking and to engage different ages, e.g. a table with building blocks for children to build a healthy neighborhood, or paper and cut-outs of neighborhood buildings where children and families could paste on ways to improve their neighborhood. This could be a hands-on facilitated discussion.
Libraries could host a community walk from the library with stops at other organizations in the neighborhood. At each stop there could be a different local agency that has information for community members and a hands-on activity. Along the path there could be signs with data about the health of their neighborhood gathered from the County Health Rankings web site, plus books about health and posters advertising upcoming wellness events. At the end of the walk, have people share their thoughts on the statistics that were shared (public health department may have more local data and be willing to participate as a potential partner). This could be done through short videos (that could be put on the library and other community web sites) or note cards that could then be posted on a bulletin board to capture what the community says.

Resources:

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

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