This is a passion area for me, Jacqueline, for sure. I believe that libraries are institutions of justice first and foremost--even more than being institutions of literacy. And true justice in centered around healing, so I hope to see libraries centering self care and healing practices with and for their communities much more than I feel like we are now. ESPECIALLY during multiple pandemics (COVID, racialized violence, government insurrection, disinformation, etc), I feel like we as a field need to pivot to recognizing this as something that must be prioritized higher field-wide. Both for staff and for all community members.
I'd be happy to explore this more with you and others who might be interested. I think the examples you bring up are great ones, and I can think of many more as well. In March of 2019 ALA accepted 42 library workers from throughout the country to be trained as facilitators of "Racial Healing Circles," a model for communal healing practice. ALA has info about that here:
http://www.ala.org/news/member-news/2019/02/ala-announces-participants-racial-healing-circle-workshop-aacuI was in that first cohort and have brought the model back to my community with a friend and colleague who was also, fortunately, accepted into the first cohort. We recently co-wrote a blog post for ALA's Office of Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services blog, "Intersections," about our experience so far with the model:
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/odlos-blog-racial-healing-circlesWe also have a rough readers program at my library, which brings therapy dogs in for struggling readers (or any young person, really) who would like to practice their reading out on a very nonjudgmental audience. I've seen broader programs like this in universities, also, where--during exam times, usually--the library will bring in therapy dogs for students to just pet, be with in proximity and decompress. I think this is something that ought to be implemented in more public libraries, for sure.
There obviously so many others. But the last I'll mention is that I'm a practitioner of sitting meditation and, in some ways, I feel like it's saved my life. So that's another practice I'd love to see more normalized and institutionally welcomed for organizations that wish to prioritize healing and self care more.
Drop me a line if you (and/or others) would like to pursue the conversation more, Jacqueline, even if just informally.
Thanks,
Nick
PS--An excellent library colleague of ours at Oak Park Public Library (Stephen Jackson) has hosted an annual Restorative Justice conference for the last few years. He's definitely doing interesting work there which harmonizes with this conversation.
PPS-If you're not already familiar with it, you might be interested in learning about or getting involved with the
SustainRT Citation for Wellness in the Workplace. The Sustainability Roundtable has been doing this award process since well before I got involved with it (not sure how long now) and, again, it's an effort that I think harmonizes with a lot of the priorities you're talking about. So one more thing to be aware of, anyways, and maybe a place to find other like minded colleagues as well.
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Nick Demske
Community Resources Librarian
He/Him/His
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Original Message:
Sent: Jan 08, 2021 02:16 PM
From: Jacqueline Williams
Subject: Health Diversity
Thank you for your reply! I'm also interested in calming spaces and other alternative methods of health care in the library. Some things that come to mind are yoga, sound therapy, essential oil use, having guest speakers teach nutrition. I work in a school library, but I feel that this could benefit all avenues. :)
Jacqueline
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Jacqueline Williams
Student
University of South Carolina
College of Library & Information Science
Original Message:
Sent: Dec 17, 2020 07:50 PM
From: Cate Triola
Subject: Health Diversity
The public library I work for has calming spaces for people who experience sensory overload. I love this kind of thinking in public spaces, and I would love to know what other libraries are doing to meet the needs of users with different health abilities.
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Cate Triola
Substitute Librarian
Dakota County Library
Original Message:
Sent: Dec 16, 2020 04:52 PM
From: Jacqueline Williams
Subject: Health Diversity
Traveling around our nation and world we find many individuals with different health needs and practices based on their individual bodies, cultures, and ethnicities. Some libraries and librarians have begun to incorporate some of those practices into their spaces with yoga, meditation, nutrition, and teaching alternative medicine. If you are like-minded and would like to discuss how we could bring this to the forefront of libraries to expand inclusivity into our society, please reach out. Thank you.
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Jacqueline Williams
Student
University of South Carolina
College of Library & Information Science
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