PDA Event: Consumer Health Information Series for Library Staff, Session 2: Effective Health Communication and Health Literacy: Understanding the Connection

Thursday, October 3, 2024 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm

How are health communication and health literacy connected? How can you be more effective in providing health information to consumers, patients, clients, library patrons, and your community? This 1-hour class introduces the concepts of health literacy and health communication, outlines components of clear health communication, and identifies online resources from the National Library of Medicine, government agencies, and other recognized resources for health literacy and health communication.

Presenters: 

Katherine V. Chew, MLS is an Associate Librarian and the Research/Outreach Services & the liaison librarian to Mortuary Science, Center for Allied Health Programs and Center for Bioethics for the Health Sciences Library at the University of Minnesota.  She provides research support, consultations and health information instruction to University of Minnesota researchers and students in the Academic Health Sciences.  As Outreach Librarian, Katherine provides education and training on consumer health and health information literacy issues to health professionals, public librarians, and the general public across the state, including exhibiting at health fairs and other health-oriented events on National Library of Medicine resources. 

Prior to joining the University of Minnesota in 2001, Katherine was an Air Force Base Librarian in Montana, Colorado (Air Force Academy) and Germany (Sembach Air Base), before switching career paths into medical librarianship. As a medical librarian she has worked in community, urban and academic health sciences libraries and has presented at state, regional and national conferences on collections, scholarly communications, metrics and health information/literacy.  Katherine recently was awarded the 2024 Michael E. DeBakey Librarian Outreach and Community Award for her extraordinary work as a librarian in the health sciences.

Stacey Hendren is the Library Manager of the Northtown Branch in Anoka County.  In her current position, she oversees the operations of the largest branch in the Anoka County Library system, supervises and develops staff, creates and presents programming, and works with library staff and community organizations to advance the goals of the ACL Mission and Strategic Plan. Hendren has served on multiple ACL teams including Customer Experience, Digital Literacy, Older Adult Services, Social Media, Adult Services and has chaired the Staff Development, and Arts, Reading, Culture & Heritage teams. Hendren was the Reader’s Advisory trainer for ACL from 2014-2022 and is a 2019 graduate of the Anoka County Integrity in Leadership Program. 

Hendren is a long-time member of the Minnesota Library Association, Public Library Association and the American Library Association. At MLA, Hendren was President (2021), Public Libraries Division Chair (2017), Reference and Adult Services Subunit Chair (2013-2015), an MLA Institute for Leadership Excellent (MILE) participant (2015) and mentor (2017/2019/2024), and organized the former Reader’s Advisory Round Table book club Tomes on Tap.  She has presented at conferences and offered training at the local, state and national level on the topics of library management, intellectual freedom, reference, reader’s advisory, STEM and youth services. 

Stacey received Consumer Health Information Specialization from the Medical and Public Library Associations (Level I 2018, Level II in 2020/24) and serves as a Network of the National Library of Medicine Partner Outreach Program Ambassador (2024-2026). Hendren served as a board member for the Mental Wellness Campaign of Anoka County (2020-2021) and is currently serving as the treasurer of the Minnesota Library Foundation. Stacey received her BA in music education from UMN-Morris and her MLIS from UW-Milwaukee. 

Register to attend.

This course hosted by Minitex is courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and qualifies for one credit towards Consumer Health Information Specialization.