The May 2024 newsletter of Let’s Move in Libraries includes:

• An invitation to learn how library trustees/boards, friends, and foundations can help support community health
• How to get ready for the 2nd annual I Partner with My Public Library Awards
• How to get ready for StoryWalk® Week 2024
• Stories from the US Play Coalition and the Public Library Association conferences
• An inspiring story from Ohio
• News you can use from Health.gov
• An invitation to our monthly Birds of a Feather call

This month’s featured image comes from the Sustainable Libraries Initiative.

On Thursday, May 2, at 1 pm Eastern Time, they invite all to join them for an open conversation on the sustainability of a library’s outdoor spaces! At Let’s Move in Libraries, we believe that some of the most impactful library initiatives involve re-imagining outdoor spaces owned by libraries as spaces for learning, engagement, and play.

According to the session description, you’ll be able to “dive into sustainable action taken on-site, but outside your building’s walls. Whether it’s designing an outdoor site management plan, planting native species and other gardens, or making decisions about how to control pests and weeds on premises – sustainably managing your outdoor spaces may be a challenge. Join us on May 2 at 1:00 PM to learn helpful tips from fellow Sustainable Library Certification Program members, join in on a discussion about sustainability, and ask general or topic-specific questions. We hope to see you there!”

Learn more and sign up at the SLI website.

An invitation to learn how library trustees/boards, friends, and foundations can help support community health

We are thrilled to be joining our friends at the American Library Association’s United for Libraries for their May Learning Live webinar. In conversation with Christine Weinreich of Memphis Library Foundation, and Chris Chanyasulki of the Brookline (Massachusetts) Public Library Board, we’ll be discussing and sharing how community health is best supported through collaboration!

And key collaborators are Friends of the Library, Library Foundations, and Library Trustees and Boards. Learn more and sign up on the American Library Association webpage. This webinar is free for all members of United for Libraries, as well as all librarians in in Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oregon, or Virginia. Join us!

How to get ready for the 2nd annual I Partner with My Public Library Awards

How to get ready for StoryWalk® Week 2024

We’re also thrilled to share that for the fourth consecutive year we are teaming up with the Association of Bookmobile & Outreach Services (ABOS) for the Fourth Annual StoryWalk® Week celebration!

This year the fun will be November 10-16.

And we’d like to invite you to share your stories as well! We feature them online and in our newsletters to inspire others.

To participate, all you need to do is a share a photograph of your library’s StoryWalk from the year 2024, along with a brief caption. We’ll be opening up the call for participation in October 2024.

To get ideas and inspiration check out the webpages for

StoryWalk Week 2023

StoryWalk Week 2022

StoryWalk Week 2021

And our StoryWalk resource page.

Let’s get moving outside!

Stories from the US Play Coalition and the Public Library Association conferences

April was a great time for conversations on play, health, and public librarianship! On April 16, 2024, the US Play Coalition hosted the first ever Libraries, Learning, & PLAY forum at their annual conference. This image includes some of the participants: Daniel Hatcher of Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Chris McEachron of the Kentucky Science Center, and Elizabeth McChesney from the LaundryCares Foundation (formerly Chicago Public Library). They spoke on the topic of Playful Collaborations.

Let’s Move in Libraries was honored to part of this inaugural event! We encourage everyone to connect with the US Play Coalition to follow and to get involved with their work. Their slogan is “Play is the common denominator” and we could not agree more!

During the Libraries, Learning, & PLAY Forum there was a vision board to collect statements that finish the sentence “My vision for the future of play in libraries is…” and the following were collected:

• Library-led play spaces in community spaces like early childhood centers
• More family play and promoting parent/caregiver play
• Play embedded into all library programming and for all ages
• How can libraries own the word joy when talking about play-based learning?
• Explore how libraries can be an art medium and a play space
• How might library patrons of all ages feel empowered to play around with their own passions
• More inclusive play and play with adaptive toys parents can’t buy themselves
• Play at the academic library level is taken seriously
• Child-led play with adults as curious observers, not facilitators
• Developing partnerships for outside play
• Would like to learn more about how to talk about play as fruitful with parents/caregiveres
• Please conduct a session on how to talk about play as serious learning
• Partnerships for play in other spaces like jails and WIC centers
• Loose parts play
• Play for arts
• Play with adults that lets them feel cognitive happiness and joy
• Play to promote democracy/active listening with others
• Play as health
• Joyful and inclusive play that brings along neurodivergent patrons as well as typically developing patrons of all ages.

What is your vision for the future of play in libraries? Let us know!!

Go to the US Play Coalition homepage to learn more!

Also during the month of April, Let’s Move in Libraries organized an informal, in-person meet-up at the Public Library Association Conference!

It was wonderful meeting dozens of Let’s Move in Libraries supporters and members during this event, and we can’t wait for future opportunities to meet-up in person!

An inspiring story from Ohio

Our thanks to Mary Meixner, Community Engagement Associate at Ashland Public Library in Ohio, for sharing this story and photo with us! Have something you want to share to inspire or inform others? Send it to us and we’ll feature it in a future newsletter!

“At the end of April, our library partnered with our local state park and Audubon chapter to put on an event celebrating birds in the midst of spring migration. We brought our Bookmobile and set up several activities for kids to do to learn more about birds and migration. A naturalist from the park and someone from the Audubon chapter led a hike through the park to look and listen for birds. Everyone had a good time and it was a beautiful day to be outside appreciating birds!”

News you can use from Health.gov

On April 17, 2024, Health.gov, the webpage of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, published “Catawba County Library System: Leveraging Healthy People 2030 Objectives and Community Partnerships to Deliver More than Books.”

This in-depth article features some of the ways in which this North Carolina public library works with its community to support public health.

Here are a few of the highlights:

“Helping patrons get active — in and out of the library
In addition to helping patrons keep their minds sharp, Catawba County Library System encourages them to take care of their bodies. It even sets goals for staff to help boost its health and wellness programming — and ultimately help improve the health of the community. For example, Derr’s goal in 2023 was to facilitate at least 25 programs to foster healthy eating, active living, behavioral health, and chronic disease prevention.

Under its umbrella of health and wellness programming, the library is working to foster an interest in physical activity and lower barriers to participating by making programs fun, free, and safe — efforts that closely align with Healthy People 2030 Leading Health Indicator PA-05: Increase the proportion of adults who do enough aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.

The library partners with fitness organizations and exercise instructors to deliver a wide range of free fitness classes, including yoga and Zumba, at different library branches. This is especially important, Derr says, because “not every neighborhood is safe to exercise in, and we want people to know the library is a safe space for them.” She says the classes consistently draw between 10 and 40 participants.

One librarian, a certified yoga instructor, leads a range of yoga classes at her library branch, including chair yoga and gentle stretching to provide options for all ages. She also offers a monthly session in Catawba County’s newest park, Mountain Creek Park, to help library patrons enjoy the benefits of yoga and gain the positive health impacts of being in nature. The library sponsors other physical activity programs and wellness-related events out in the community. For example, it facilitates a weekly meet-up in community parks that includes a tai chi warm-up followed by an hourlong hike during all but the coldest times of year. Additionally, staff host programs at the library’s community garden, where patrons can connect socially, get their hands dirty, and learn about growing fresh foods.

“Our health and wellness programs are a huge priority for us,” says Derr. “I’m proud to say that so far this fiscal year [as of early March 2024], we’ve facilitated over 140 health and wellness programs across the library system — and since the fiscal year ends in June, we still have a few months to go!

Lessons Learned
When it comes to producing high-quality programs for patrons, Derr says working with the right community partners is key. She shares some ideas about how to find the right organizations to partner with and ensure things run smoothly:

Get involved in the community.
Knowing about the work that other community-based organizations are doing has been essential for Catawba County Library System to find new partners. Along with representatives from 50 other area nonprofits, Derr attends the Catawba County United Way Interagency Council meeting — where each organization shares information about its work and the resources it needs.

Team up with partners to make programs easier to access.
Working with community partners expands the number and types of venues you can use for your events — which can make them accessible to more people. Think about where in the community people are spending their time and whether there’s a potential partner that can help you reach them there — similar to how Catawba County Library System brings Library to Go to the laundromat. And consider using publicly funded spaces, like parks, for events promoting health and wellness.

Remember that working with other organizations helps you — and them.
Derr notes that working with the library can help partner organizations meet their own objectives, a point that may help potential partners get on board with a collaboration. “In many cases, we’re helping them meet their outreach goals while also helping our library patrons accomplish some things that they want to accomplish.”

Get on the same page — and then document it!
Derr says it’s important to be up front with partners about any guidelines or rules they need to follow (for example, programs at the library must be completely free and nothing can be sold). She also suggests documenting each partner’s roles and responsibilities — and how much they’ll spend — before starting on the work.”

Read the full article at “Catawba County Library System: Leveraging Healthy People 2030 Objectives and Community Partnerships to Deliver More than Books.”

Congratulations Catawba County Public Library for this amazing media coverage!! Let’s Move in Libraries wants to share and amplify YOUR story. Use our form to get started.

An invitation to our monthly Birds of a Feather call