2 - Librarians Supporting Our Heroes—Reconnecting through Resource Development

Background: Academic, government, military, public, and school libraries participated in the Libraries and Veterans National Forum, conducted by Texas A&M University and funded by IMLS grant number LG-12-19-0114, to develop toolkits surrounding veteran-centered resources and services. These toolkits are being created to support library staff in cultivating services or programs geared towards veterans who live in diverse communities. This poster concentrates on the collaborative efforts of this forum in planning and refining 10 + toolkits with the purpose of helping various library types to better meet the needs of their veteran communities.

Description: An online forum was held in September of 2021 that highlighted featured guest speakers who shared their experiences and successes with veteran programming. Following the forum, a call for committee members was held to invite librarians to collaborate and generate ideas for the forum’s repository of toolkits. Medical librarians worked with other specialty librarians to develop publicly available resources for all types of libraries to support programming focused on veterans. Topics include health literacy, service animals, nutrition, fitness, suicide prevention, PTSD awareness, homeless stand downs, warrior care month, and many others. Each submission contains information regarding the project or program’s description, development outline, partners and stakeholders, recommended resources, and various assessment tools. The ultimate goal for these toolkits is to support libraries in meeting the complex and varied needs of their veteran communities.

Conclusion: Toolkits were vetted before being uploaded to the repository. Sub-award applications were made available for libraries who needed seed money to implement toolkit ideas at their facilities. The repository will be made publicly available in early 2022. The national forum created partnerships that will continue in the future as we explore ways to share the toolkits such as presentations to organizations, research, and assessments of toolkits used. All uses of the toolkits are welcomed whether to create programming, expand programming or anything that will bring value to the veteran community.