IN DEPTH
Health and wellbeing – engaging libraries
Rachel Heydecker and Andy Wright share case studies and refl ections from Engaging Libraries, a partnership project between the Carnegie UK Trust and Wellcome Trust to give public libraries opportunities to create innovative health and wellbeing public engagement projects.
WILL people attend a Death Café in a library? Will academics be willing and able to engage with library users about brain development? How can a comic help libraries tackle mental health? These were just some of the questions our portfolio of Engaging Libraries projects aimed to answer through their innovative, experimental public engagement schemes. The Engaging Libraries programme supported 14 projects in 16 public library services across England, Wales and Scotland for one year (October 2017- October 2018), providing project funding of up to £25k and off ering participating libraries a range of opportunities to engage with one another while developing and delivering their individual schemes. The projects encouraged debate, curiosity and conversation among library users on a wide range of topics including mental health, body image and ageing through a variety of creative means. From death cafes and theatre performances to animation work- shops and sculpture sessions, Engaging Libraries demonstrated innovation, experi- mentation and collaboration between public libraries and partners.
The programme asked public libraries to build on, and go beyond, their fantastic health promotion work and develop new, engaging and creative ways to spark debate and curiosity among library users on their chosen themes.
Here we share two case studies and our refl ections from the fi rst phase of Engaging
36 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rachel Heydecker (
RachelH@carnegie.co.uk) is Policy and Development Offi cer, Carnegie UK Trust. Andy Wright (
andy@carnegieuk.org) is a Carnegie Associate.
Libraries. The case studies demonstrate the inspiring, engaging activities which were undertaken, as well as the partnerships formed and opportunities which arose from taking part in the programme. To fi nd out more about the projects from the fi rst phase, please see our project report at
bit.ly/engaglibs.
April-May 2019
Engaging Libraries
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