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Once in a while you sit down and open an envelope that just makes your day. Just last month I had that very experience when opening mail from our regional library office.
Winding Rivers Library System had applied for competitive grant dollars from the Library Services and Technology Act funds available federally through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which continually works to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.
This particular grant application intended to connect people with health information. Earlier in the year the region was notified that the application had been successful. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to wrap your head around the reality of things until it’s physically in your hand. In my hands a few weeks ago was a portion of those dollars for the county to participate in the project as well — $1,450 towards print materials related to health literacy. Well, where to begin.
In today’s book market, that kind of money doesn’t seem to go far with list prices now close to $30 for a general nonfiction title and even higher for specialized medical information. Fortunately, we do qualify for discounted pricing through state contracts with major book vendors and so far the money has enabled us to add more than 60 new titles to our adult and childrens collections and eight new magazine subscriptions throughout the county at Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska and West Salem.
To tie-in with some other collaborative efforts in the Coulee Region, Gundersen Lutheran and Franciscan Skemp have joined forces in a grant of their own through the National Library of Medicine to promote health literacy.
Health information can be confusing and some of the vernacular used by professionals is not normally in your everyday conversations. Seems more than ever, though, we’re all expected to help take care of ourselves.
The information and resources being spread through this collaboration made these extra grant dollars from IMLS even more timely and useful.
Whether you’re looking for preventive, diagnostic or disease management information, be sure to make the La Crosse County Library System part of your treatment plan. New titles are arriving daily and include such help as Donald Vickery’s “Take Care of Yourself,” Elaine Magee’s new “Tell Me What to Eat if I Have Diabetes” and Jerome Granto’s “Living with Coronary Heart Disease.” A complete bibliography of new titles will be available later this month.
For more on the Great Rivers Partners for Health-e People project, call Great Rivers at 2-1-1 or see the Health-e People Ask Questions presentation at
www.literacycoalition.org/healthliteracy.html.
Whatever the news at your next visit to your medical provider or on your journey to healthy living, stop by a La Crosse County Library location in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska or West Salem and see how you can improve your own health literacy.
For more information about any of our services or for upcoming programming schedules, including our summer library program, check-out our Web site at
www.lacrossecountylibrary.org or call our administrative center in Holmen at 526-9600.
Chris McArdle Rojo is director of the La Crosse County Library System.
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