There is a learner guide for today's session that helps you extend your learning on the topic.  There are a number of link slinks -- so if you have localized efforts you are trying to get everyone on board with at your library or in your community, you can customize the guide to make that helpful for your local discussions.  
All right.  I'm going to get our recording started.  Thank you, all, for being here.  I'm very excited to introduce you to today's presenters.  I'm going to introduce Noah who is coming to us from the University of North Carolina in Grennsboro.  
And he's also the man behind let's move in libraries, the wonderful resource you'll hear more about later today.  Also joining us is Leslie Gelders from the Oklahoma department of libraries where she is the literacy administrator and works with the Oklahoma literacy resource office.  And she is the great mind behind all of the health initiatives happening in Oklahoma.  
And also joining us from the Miami public library is Marcia Johnson who is the library director and going to share excellent work related to health literacy programming in their community.  I'm going to pass it on over to Noah and have him get us started.  Welcome, Noah.
>> Thanks, Jennifer.  Just to reiterate, this is Noah speaking to you from North Carolina.  And today I'm going to be talking to you about how to incorporate food and physical activity and the health literacy programs at your library.  So just as the context, the World Health Organization and former first lady Michelle Obama's let's move campaign each identify these as public health concerns, pretty much everywhere in the U.S. so they are safe bets for health literacy programming at your library.  
And so I've been studying this since 2016.  If you want to dig deeper into what I've learned and how you can apply it at your library, you can access some of my research at this URL.  And I've also shared my findings and my videos that are available on youtube as well as on the let's move in libraries web site and our social media channels.  So take a look and reach out to me with any questions at any point.
And a major finding is the best initiative start from library staff who are themselves excited about healthy living.  My first recommendation is to start with you and your staff.  Consider adopting things like the national alliance for nutrition and activities to get conversations started about how you can create a work environment that supports healthy nutrition and physical activity both for staff and for patrons.  In fact, some libraries have already adopted these guidelines.  My second recommendation is don't do it alone.  The U.S. institute of museum and library services have new community catalyst initiative that challenges museums and libraries to transform how they collaborate with their communities.  And I have found, in my work, the best health literacy initiatives involve librarians partnering with everyone from the public health department to master gardeners to the YMCA to bring high impact health programs to the library.  So don't do it alone.  And on that note, take sometime to get support from other librarians.  There are now multiple books written about how to do health literacy programming and I recommend, in particular, get your community moving, physical literacy programs for all ages, which is now available from ala additions.  Another great way to get support from other librarians is to reach out to your library of medicine which you can identify at the first link.  The public library association also publishes a monthly newsletter all about health and public libraries which you can sign up for and people from PLA and myself moderate a group on Facebook which over 500 librarians share what they are doing and get advice.  That's another place to get support from other librarians.  And finally, you can get support through the let's move libraries initiative itself.  We share stories of success as well as resources in our monthly newsletter and on our social media channels.  And share your stories with us and we will share them with others. 
And finally, let your state library association and/or regional consortium know this is important to your community.  
They won't know to support it if you are not telling them about it.  
And here's an example of the question I see come up all the time in these forums pretty much every time I have given a presentation on this topic.  
Librarians want to know how to deal with legal liability.  The short answer is we got this.  
Literally thousands of public libraries throughout the U.S. 
and Canada now offer physical activity and healthy food at their libraries.  And I've been gathering the paperwork these libraries use to protect themselves from liability.  And I've been sharing this documentation on my web site.  
So use what has worked well for others and do not reinvent the wheel.  
And I don't have a lot of time today but I want to very quickly give a brief overview of the major programming trends that I've discovered.  Four ways libraries feed us.  We distribute food at the library by participating in things like the USDA's summer food service program to offer lunch at the library or little free pantries.
We teach and support community agriculture through gardening programs.  We teach how to cook, prepare and eat healthily through cooking programs and we offer the library's support to food programs by signing people up for food stamps and having tables at farmer's markets.  
Libraries also getting us moving by making movement part of existing programs as in walking book clubs or yoga story times. 
We move for fun through dance parties and nerf capture the flag competitions.  We develop new collections.  As well as new spaces and infrastructures like stationary exercise bike.   We get people active outdoors through things like story walks in the park and we also offer fitness and movement classes like Zumba.   The main message is you don't have to do it all.  No library could.  But you could do something.  Here's images of what different libraries do to get their communities moving and eating healthily.  The two corner stones of health literate community.  They have weekly walking groups, fitness equipment you can check out, ride and read initiatives involving stationary bikes, chair based exercise classes for older adults and even raised bed community gardens on the library lawn.  You don't have to do it all but do something.  Take the time to prioritize what you want to do in your community to make a difference.  And also prioritize what partnerships you will need to get these initiatives off the ground.  The learning guide for this webinar has additional information about how you can make this happen at your library.  And I'm a little bit behind schedule so I'm going to skip this slide and move right to the end.  Please do reach out to me at any point.  
My email is easy to remember.  
Lenstra@uncg.edu.  If you would like more information on anything discussed today, check out the let's move in libraries web site, our social media channels or reaching out to me directly.  And I just put in the chat the context form.  I'm now going to turn things over to Leslie from the Oklahoma department of libraries.  I'm so excited to hear the Oklahoma story.  She's very inspiring and health literacy champion.  Take it away, Leslie.
>> Thank you.  And happy new year.  And I thank everybody for giving me the opportunity -- and why libraries should be involved.   Sorry about that.  As literacy coordinator at the Oklahoma department of libraries, I got interested in health literacy in part because of the difficulties individuals with a low literacy face when they are dealing with health issues and trying to understand complex health information.  So for the past seven years, the literacy office has coordinated a health literacy initiative that encourages public libraries and roles as health and wellness resources for the community.  
This year, 29 libraries and community-based literacy organizations were funded to engage in interesting and innovative activities that promote health and wellness.  
For those of you, you should know libraries are in the unique position to address community needs and there's definitely a need for resources that support health.   
So let's review the definition of health literacy.   Health literacy is the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions for themselves and for their family. 
For me, the key words are obtain and understand.  Individuals who live in rural or isolated communicateds and those without access to the internet may find it challenging to obtain credible health and wellness information.
>> Leslie.  I'm sorry, I have to jump in.  There's definitely something going on with your audio.  It's speeding up and dropping a little bit.  You may need to call in on the phone, I'm thinking.  It's definitely jumping in and out.  I wonder if while you get set up, I'll have you switch your audio.  You can do that either going to the communicate menu at the top left and then it will ask you -- you can switch to the phone.
>> Okay.  I'm sorry.
>> Yeah, I know.  It's too bad. 
We did our audio check and everything.  And it sounded good.
>> If I hold the microphone, is it any better?
>>  No, it's more of a band width thing so it's not the quality of the audio.  It's doing some odd little speeding up and cutting out.
>> Okay.  I will turn it over to Marcia and readjust here.
>> Okay.  I will grab the ball real quick.  That's a good idea to have Marcia pick up.  So let me just jump ahead here.  Thanks for your patience, folks.   
Marcia, we'll have you takeover and we'll do a little flip here and have you present for us now.
Welcome.
>> Okay.  Thank you.  My name is Marcia Johnson.  And I am the director of the Miami public library which is a small municipal library.  Our population is about 13,500.  We are also the only library in the county.  And so Ottawa county population is about 32,000.  I'm going to tell you a little bit about our project -- my slide's not forwarding, though.  I do want to do it in conjunction with giving you steps with how you can do this yourself.   
>> You may need to click on the slide and then you can do that page.
>> There you go.  Thank you.  So if you are starting out from scratch, the four steps simplified are to gather statistics, enlist partners, plan activities and evaluate impact.  Why gather statistics?
Well, it helps you to put together a needs assessment and you can determine what to focus on which helps in your planning.
The first web site that I would recommend you go to and I think Leslie is going to talk about this is the America's health rankings.  This will tell you where your state ranks.  In addition, the state department of health, you might check your state department of health to see if they have any information on your county.  And then another web site is the county health rankings and road maps.  
And this is from the Robert wood Johnson foundation and it will give you a lot of information about your county.  If you are from one of the 500 largest cities in the nation, you might also want to check out the CDC site and learn more information about your city specifically.  
Now, this is a slide screen shot from the county health rankings and you can see to the left is a list of counties.  These are some of the counties in Oklahoma.  We have 77.  And if you look to the right and you see the bar that says health behaviors, if you follow it all the way over to the far right, you can see a 72.  That tells us that we are 72 out of the 77 counties as far as health behaviors go.  And so that's why we focus our efforts on healthy behaviors.  So these are some of our statistics.  And you can see how we compare to the state of Oklahoma.  Now, the statistics help us to be deliberate in our approach.  We aren't just doing anything that sounds good for health literacy.  We're trying to specifically focus on healthy behaviors in relation to diet and nutrition, physical activity and managing diabetes which are all kind of tied together anyway.  
When you've gathered your statistics, then the next step is to gather your partners.  You need partners and as Noah talked about, you can do more with partners, reach more people and have a bigger impact when you work with partners.  You want to gather your statistics first, when you go and talk to your partners, you want them to know you know your stuff.  They'll know the statistics.  It's good when you go in too and know what they are.  I just listed a few potential partners.  Of course, you want to go to health department and see if they have a health educate error community wellness coordinator.  These people, part of their job is to go out and teach lessons and teach classes that have to do with health.  You don't want to overlook your municipal departments for specific projects you might be able to work with the fire department or police department or parks and rec.  You also want to locate your county extension agency because, again, part of their mission is to go out and teach. 
And a lot of that can involve health literacy.  And I'm going to tell you briefly about our product for the farmer's market.
That's another good potential partner.  And the last is just a link to the Oklahoma department of library's web site in which it lists all of the Oklahoma health literacy partners.  And it's an extensive list.  Should be helpful to you.  
Now, our major partners and funders through the grant are the Oklahoma department of libraries and the institute of museum and library services.  
Our major partners include Northeastern tribal health systems, the Ottawa county health department and integris Miami hospital.  We have other partners I'll refer to for specific projects.  These are the major ones for everything.  
So when you get together with your partners and you look over your statistics and you probably will have to narrow down what you are going to focus on, then you are ready to start planning activities.  And for those of you that might be starting from scratch, I listed just three examples of activities that would require little to no funding and two of them would not even require staff to leave them.  The first one is a cooking class or demonstration with your county extension agent.  When I went to our county extension agent, she gave me a whole list a whole page full of different things she had been trained to teach.  And I could pick out what sounded like it could fit with our project.  
A diabetes class, if that's an issue in your area with the diabetes instructor, a lot of medical facilities will have a diabetes instructor and they will come out and they will have the materials and everything needed to teach that class.  
Now, the last one, children's nutrition program would choosechoosemyplate.gov.  It isn't just for children.  But it does have a really good children's section.  It has everything you would need including handouts, activities and lesson plans so your children's librarian or if you are the one that does the children's programming could do a nutrition program.  In addition, somebody from a clinic or health department might also be able to use those materials to teach at your library.  I'm going to give you a brief tour of some of our activities keeping in mind that we started in 2013.  And so this is over the course of five years.  Our flag ship activity was to create some gardens in our community.  
We created one at the Ottawa county health department.  It has six beds and the produce is used for the health department clients.  Used at the farmer's market demos.  Used in children's classes and we also created a garden at one of our boy's and girl's clubs.  It has three beds and we have garden classes for kids there.  Healthy eating classes and cooking classes.  This year, we're in the process of adding a garden to an agency in a low-income neighborhood downtown.  It will have a more central location.  
We have cooking classes for adults and children that are very popular.  The adult classes are taught by dieticians and wellness coordinator from a hospital.  And they come in and we do these quarterly and they are very popular.  In our children's classes, we do these at the boy's and girl's clubs.  
This is a partnership with Northeastern tribal health systems with the dieticians and the boy's and girl's clubs.  The children learn everything from how to measure liquid to how to chop veggies for salads.  And then, of course, we've had exercise classes.  Everything from yoga to general stretching.
We also had what we called our route 66 virtual walking tour.  
This was put together with different businesses and agencies in the community who put teams together.   Just kept track of the steps.   Walked over 106,000 miles over the course of 31 weeks.  It was a great project.  Unfortunately, what we learned from it was 31 weeks was way too long to have a project like this.  And so we've kind of backed away from it for a couple years.  And we'll try it again later.  
And, of course, with the farmer's market, we partnered with them and we provide samples of healthy foods cooking things at the market that week along with recipes and nutrition information about the recipes.  
And information on topics like how to store fresh produce.  
That helps us to be seen out in the community.  We pass out information at health fairs.  A lot of times, there's free resources available.  For example, the national institute on aging has books available like senior nutrition.  And those are free.  You just have to order them.   
So the fourth step is to evaluate your outcomes and your impact.  And this is very important.  If you are administering a grant, you have to do this.  It's also important to provide the information for the governing body, whoever funds you.  And also to provide it for your partners.  When I partner with a wellness coordinator, I'm not partnering with the president of the hospital or with the hospital board.  But she can take that information back to them and let them know what kind of an impact this partnership has in the community.  And we're very used to keeping those kind of statistics.  You want to be sure to include outcomes in your report.  And I'll put in a quick plug for project outcome which is a free tool kit that was created by the public library association that will help you measure impact.  And it's a great resource.  The surveys that we take for our health literacy grant provide outcomes on how people and the library have benefited from the programs.  And if you have a story about how someone got a better health report at the doctor.   You want to know the impact on perceptions of your library in the community.  I can give you a couple quick examples of that.  I was asked to serve on the farmer's market board.  I know this is because they SAU us as being a partner with them in promoting health and wellness.  
And the second example, the city of Miami applied for and received a certified healthy business award last year and part of certified healthy Oklahoma.  You might see if your state has something similar.  I provided the information for the application about what we were doing with health literacy project.  And the lady who wrote the application told me the award was received by the city in part because of the health literacy work the lie Barry had been doing in the community.  So I was invited to go with the city manager and HR director to accept this award.  
I'm not going to talk about this other than to say you will get these slides.  These are the questions on our survey.  
There's only five of them and I know how many strongly agreed or agreed.  And so that concludes my presentation.  Feel free to contact me or go to our library web site.  There's more information about our project on the library web site as well as our Facebook page.  So now over to Leslie. 
>> Thanks so much and I wanted to encourage people to feel free to type questions into chat.  I know that's a lot.  We've given you a lot of information and we're going to keep giving you more.  A reminder that you don't necessarily need to explore the links in chat now.  We will be making sure any of those additional links get posted to today's event page.  And as I mentioned earlier, if you have examples and resources you'd like to share, you can add those to our virtual brainstorm here. 
There is one question that looks to have come through chat.  And having an issue with exercise programming.  I've been book exercise trainers to do a series of yoga and other exercise programs and people reserve a spot but don't end up come and going they don't cancel so that spot doesn't get open.  So I know that the marketing and registration piece is a big part of the process.  Can you talk about how you address no shows and also your marketing.  How do you get the word out?
>>  We deal with that as well.  
We tend to over book if we can. 
We know there will be a few no shows.  We also call people a lot and remind them and we might find out they aren't going to be able to come.   The store that you can contact people, that's the best.  And we post on Facebook and other social media.
>> Others have luck in attendees and having them be champions for getting the word out or making sure they bring that friend that maybe hasn't shown up.  So don't underestimate the power of your participants in that as well.   
All right.  I do see a question about the project outcome, PLA's free tool kit.  I know there are additional resources on that and I'll be sure to post those to chat.  I think let's head back and thank you so much, Leslie, for your speedy troubleshooting and I'll let you pick up where you left off.  Thank you so much.   And we just need to unmute here.  I'll let you unmute yourself, Leslie.   
>> All right.  Thank you, everybody, for dealing with this little glitch.  I'm going to go back and review the definition of health literacy.  It's the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process and understand basic health information to make appropriate decisions for themselves and for their family.  And so as we switched over to Marcia and back again, I was talking about individuals who lived in rural or isolated communities and without access to the internet may find it challenging to find credible health and wellness information.  And individuals with low literacy skills or individuals who don't understand English very well may find it difficult to comprehend written and even verbal health information.  Even those of us who are very literate can find it challenging to understand complex health information and unfamiliar medical terms when we are ill and under stress or a family member in emergency situation.  All of these can influence our ability to make appropriate health decisions.  
And many of these factors are the invitations for libraries to be involved in health literacy. 
One of the ways your library can strengthen its role as the community anchor is to better understand the health needs of your state, your county and your community and then address at least some of those needs.  So it's my recommendation that you do a little research so you have basic background information as you start thinking about health literacy.  And you might just be surprised at what you discover. 
As she mentioned, a great tool is the recently updated report America's health rankings from the united health foundation.  
This report provides easy to access health information and with just a click of the button, you are able to see where your state ranks.  There are other good resources listed in your learner guide.  But you should also check out current reports from your state department of health and other resources.  And while you are probably most interested in your state, you should know that America's health ranks listed Oklahoma in 47th place for our health.  So clearly, this indicates there are many opportunities for Oklahoma libraries to address community health needs.  But even if your state has a higher ranking than Oklahoma and really all but three of you do, every state and every community can benefit when the library is involved in health literacy.  
When you think about it, there are many issues that affect health and wellness.  And the health rankings report will provide you with some details for each state on such things such as obesity rates, physical inactivity, diabetes, cancer, dental visits and percentages of uneven sure children all of which are problems in my state. 
When we did our research, we also found that Oklahoma had a very low score for the rate of fresh fruit and vegetables.  And a significant number of our communities are located in areas considered food deserts.  You can easily find this kind of information online.  Of course, as librarians, you are well connected with your communities and are probably aware of other issues that contribute to your community's health.  Recently, an Oklahoma library -- librarian told me the only grocery store in town closed.  People without transportation must purchase their food at dollar general store.  And while I'm sure the community is very thankful that dollar general store is available, that store can only provide a limited selection of fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy items.  So think for a minute about what types of programs a library might offer to a community with limited grocery options.  What could a library do?
You can put some things up in the chat.  I have a few ideas.
the library might partner with a local garden center or a master gardener to offer container gardening class.  Maybe offer a seed swapping program or make garden tools available for loan.
Or work with the area cooperative extension service to learn how to prepare healthy meals with available ingredients.  The library can certainly be an important resource for promoting health and wellness.  I'm talking primarily to library staff but want to reinforce why libraries make great partners.  Libraries offer a nonthreatening environment.  Think about the difference most of us do as we enter the library or even a doctor's office.  And two thirds of the U.S. population live near a public library.   Such as Medline plus and national networks of libraries and medicine.  Patrons can find health information available in easy to understand formats in a variety of languages including information they might be embarrassed or hesitant to discussed with their health professionals.  Libraries can offer a wide range of materials, programming and resources and, of course, librarians are information experts and the public is comfortable asking them questions.  Adding health literacy to your already busy schedules may seem daunting and the topic may seem a bit dry.  
We suggest efforts are creative and fun ways to address community health needs.  And we encourage libraries to coordinate health literacy activities rather than think that library staff must be the individuals teaching or demonstrating all of the programs.  So I'd like to share a few more examples of programs offered by public libraries, the majority of which have taken place in rural communities.  
This photo of a step class at the library in Perkins Oklahoma shows what can be done in a relatively small library space. 
Enough room for four people across to exercise.  Look at the attendance.  Another popular exercise classes have been yoga, and pilates.  How do programs address Oklahoma's need for health?
You should have seen Oklahoma ranked poor low and ranked even worse for the rate of obesity.  
So library programs that offer free exercise classes are providing a great community resource.  And this is especially true in communities that don't have gyms or exercise studios or for community members who can't afford to pay for classes.  Some of the libraries have been creative with exercise programs.  This swing dance class had a waiting list and the tango class was also popular.  
Dance instructors were contacted to teach these classes.  Here's another photo of a story walk in the park coordinated by the still water public library and result of a partnership between the library and the city parks and recreation department.  The library provided the sign, equipment and inserted pages from a children's book and the city park's department installed the signs along the walking trail.  Families are encouraged to visit the park and follow exercise tips on the signs.  
This photo shows a page from the book from head to toe and it has children jumping like a kangaroO, waving their arms like a monkey.  The county health department along with several other local organizations were on hand to distribute health information and pass out donated water, fruit, books and even finger puppets.  The book is changed periodically to encourage families to revisit the walking trail which, of course, not only encourages physical activity but also promotes family reading.  A project of this nature can be very appealing for partners and funders.  Think about including such groups as rotary or the local book store.  And you can find a video about this project on WebJunction.  Many of the sites provided community education on everything from stroke prevention to C PR, diabetes, eye health and how to communicate with your healthcare provider.  And the Southwest Oklahoma city public library hosted a timely community discussion about the opioid abuse problem in the state.  All these topics were presented by outside speak ares.  -- 
speakers.  Jump roping, juggling and gardening.  And in all cases, the library collaborated with local or nearby instructors.  Some of the instructors volunteered and some were paid nominal fees.
healthy cooking demonstrations proved to be popular programs in Oklahoma.  Many libraries partnered with their county cooperative extension service or local restaurants to offer classes for children, teens, adults and families.  The classes helped members understand food choices on such things as diabetes, obesity and other health concerns and participants learned how to make healthy snacks and how to pickle and can available produce.  And even learn about knife safety.  
Most of the cooking instructors were available at no charge to the library.  We are so thrilled about Oklahoma's health literacy efforts we've decided to share the secret of our success.  Our secret weapons are our state and local partners.  During the past two years, participating libraries, literacy programs and the Oklahoma department of library have partnered with more than 230 organizations across the state.  And we just can't say enough about the benefits of these collaborations.  In many cases, the community partners had been looking for partners and were excited about working with the library.   Once the library decides to get involved with health literacy, it's been relatively easy to find the local partners.  In fact, when I talk about the health literacy project to nonlibrary groups, I'm often told, you know, we never thought about partnering with the library.  Our champion for Oklahoma's health literacy initiative is institute of museum and library services.  
The Oklahoma department of library's budget federal funds for health literacy and offers grants to public libraries and adult literacy organizations.  
And these funds help provide the resources available at the health literacy sites.  
You don't necessarily need a lot of money to offer health literacy programs.  This year our grants range from $1300 to $9,000.  If any of your state libraries are interested in learning how the Oklahoma department of library coordinates a project of this nature, they are more than welcome to contact me.   Even if you don't have access to IMLS funds, there are many ways to find resources.  One of our valued partners is the national network of libraries of medicine.  
If your library is not a member of NNLM, you really should join today.  It's free and you will have access to free online courses, resources and even grant opportunities.  You should get to know the national network of libraries of medicine staff in your area and ask them what's available to you.  
Our third amazing partner is the cooperative extension service.  
Every state has resource that can provide free educators to teach a variety of health topics.  We just can't say enough about good things about the service.  They have been our best resource for healthy cooking instructors.  You should definitely find out what's available from your extension service.  Another of our great partners is the Oklahoma healthy aging initiative or OHAI.  Some of your states have healthy aging initiatives but all states have some type of healthy aging services.  In Oklahoma, OHAI provides us with evidence-based training on a wide range of topics that include everything from diabetes education to THai Chase -- Chi.  To find out if they can provide free educators or even such things as stretch bands and free screenings.  
Don't forget about your farmer's markets, dentists, pharmacys and tribal programs.  These have all been valued partners in our state.  We found this health literacy project prompted libraries to collaborate with some non-traditional partners for the first time and this has been a win-win situation for the library, the partners and the community.  And it usually just takes a phone call.  When we started this venture seven years ago, we didn't know much about health literacy.  Thanks to a colleague, we learned about the Wisconsin health literacy summit.  I attended the summit several years ago and returned home with a much greater understanding of the issues.  If you have the opportunity to attend in April, it will be well worth your time.  And by the way, this is an unsolicited recommendation.  
There's also a conference hosted by the institute of health -- 
and both of these are in the learner guide.   
This project has had many positive outcomes.  But perhaps, one of the most important has been the fact that local libraries are more recognized as valued community partners for health and wellness.  It may be obvious I'm proud of the libraries and library systems involved in health literacy.  We are excited about our efforts and about the opportunities ahead of us in the new year.  So please don't hesitate to contact me or any of the Oklahoma sites if you would like information.  
We'd love to know if we've inspired you to take on this challenging but rewarding outreach.  Thank you and we wish you the very best.
>> Fantastic.  Thank you so much, Leslie.  You really truly are a champion and communities are lucky to have you working on this.  Thank you so much for sharing all the resources and examples that you bring to this excellent webinar.  
I did want to bring up some questions that I've seen come through and encourage folks to continue to post other questions.  I can't tell you how many webinars people bring up the issue of marketing.  And I know we touched on it a little bit.  I'd love to even invite people in attendance to use chat as a way to share how you are marketing and doing outreach related to this.  And Noah, I'd love to hear some of the examples of successful marketing and outreach that you've heard about.  Need to be sure to unmute.
>> Yeah.  I guess I can start.  
And I'll actually start with an example that I rushed over in my slides.  I really want to give a plug to the southern library system in New York where they teamed up with two other rural serving library systems to create this dedicated portal to library health programs.  So it's a great example of librarians partnering up with other librarians to create a really engaging fun virtual platform that you can use to access all the library health programs.  So I'd encourage you to take a look at this link and also receive some funding from the national network libraries of medicine.  So to me, it really comes back to partnerships.  And marketing is part of it.  So if you are not -- I think people can get overwhelmed with marketing.  If you are working with partners, then they are also helping market the program and that's just broadening the impact and getting more people engaged.  So that's kind of my advice.   
>> Excellent.  Leslie, do you want to chime in with what you've seen success in terms of marketing and outreach?
>>  Well, we do something to assist with marketing.  We take the whole thing off with the press release.  We do fill in the blank certificate for our sites to give to their partners.
And I didn't mention this in my presentation but we have a closed Facebook site for our sites.  We exchange information all the time between us with samples of press released and flyers.  So we do a lot of inner-site communications that help us with marketing.  We can see what works and what doesn't work.
>> Excellent.  And any other thoughts related to marketing?
I was curious if you have had luck in terms of engaging with community health 
>>  Facebook and social media.  
And sometimes we even -- we'll print a postcard-sized brochure and stick them in books as peoples heart health.  
We're doing a healthy class in February.  We're starting our Thai Chi class and diabetes classes going.  We hadn't really done a specific heart project for February.
>> Okay.  Noah, have you heard of good examples of how folks are aligning with weeks and months focused on health?
>>  Yeah.  So I just put a link into the chat box.  It's not heart health month but one of the best models I know of is Elgin, Illinois where they celebrate national nutrition month which is March by having what they call March into health programs.  So I'd really encourage you to take a look at what they do every March.  It would be applicable to other months trying to tie -- you could easily tailor what they are doing for other months.
>> We can be sure to pull that up -- what is the lie BRAR -- 
library called again?
>>  Elgin.
>> Excellent.  There are lots of great examples out there.  As Marcia suggested in her introduction looking at prioritizing community needs is a good way to start.  Look at where you can align community needs.  I wanted to thank Michelle for sharing the NNLM reading club will be releasing its selection of three book titles in support of heart health month in another week or so.  We'll add that reading club link as well to the event page. 
That sounds like an excellent opportunity to align as well.   
Let's see.  
If there are any other questions, feel free to post those to chat.  Marcia's mantra is just do something.  In our work with health happens in library's project and thank you so much to Leslie for mentioning that.  There are a wealth of resources that came out of that project.  Focused on the affordable healthcare act when that first launched.  Out of that project has come many examples of libraries doing this work.  And I really feel like we can't underestimate the power of bringing health into the programming.  And for this to become such an integral part, we're learning more and more about the importance of libraries as a place things are coming together face-to-face and sharing in those goals.  
Obviously, there's a lot going on at the library.  Adjusting for programming can be a way to get started.  Any other final comments from the three of you before we wrap it up? 
Okay.  I know you've gotten a lot of information, there's more to dive into in your follow up. 
I'll be sure to add any of the other resources that came through chat that aren't already on the event page to that page. 
A number of them are in the learner guide.  And a reminder that learner guide is a great resource for you to guide your next steps either with your team.  If you are trying to get your management on board, it's a great way to bring your conversation to there.  If you are looking for ways to bring that conversation to the partners in the community.  Know that you can customize that guide.  If you want to add your own priorities, feel free to take out things that don't align with your efforts now.  This is a resource for you to customize and use in your follow up.  
You can contact all of our presenters.  I know that Noah is always eager to connect with folks doing health related initiatives.   Let him know if you get things off the ground.  
So thank you all so much for being here and thank you to our captioner.  A reminder that I'll send you all an email later today once the recording is available.  I'm also going to send you to a short survey as you leave the session.  We really want to hear from you and will share that feedback with our presenters and it also helps us guide our on-going programming.  Thank you so much.
And we look forward to seeing you at the next webinar.  
Everyone, have a fantastic day.  
[ End webinar ]