For more information and to apply, click here. 

Are you a library science student interested in health sciences librarianship or a public health student wanting to engage in community health information outreach? Are you enrolled in a program in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, or Wisconsin?

Region 6 is excited to invite you to apply for our Spring 2025 virtual internship, entitled Mapping Health Equity to Empower Communities.

This 12-week internship focuses on social determinants of health, health literacy, health statistics resources, and mapping analytics software. Students will use the knowledge and skills they acquire to develop content for the NNLM Community Guide to Advance Health Information Equity.

Internship details

Some flexibility has been designed to accommodate different program schedules, but the approximate dates are February 3 – April 25, 2025.

The internship requires a commitment of a minimum of two hours per week, but students may work up to four hours to dive deeper into the week’s topic and resources.

Each week will begin with a virtual check-in meeting with the instructors and other students. These meetings will be used to connect and build comradery, introduce the topic and assignment for the week, share the prompt for the weekly journal Reflection, and answer questions.

The weekly assignments have been designed to build the knowledge and skills needed to successfully complete the following deliverables:

• One county story for the Community Guide to Advance Health Information Equity.
• Weekly reflections on the internship experience.
• Constructive feedback for improving the Community Guide to Advance Health Information Equity project and the overall NNLM internship experience.

At the end of this internship, students will:

• Have recognized how social, economic, and environment determinants affect health outcomes for individuals and communities.
• Have Identified credible and reliable data and information resources to help build capacity for understanding health information needs in communities.
• Used GIS software to build a community data map and internet story.
• Have an increased awareness for how libraries and other community organizations are an important and trustworthy partner for advancing health literacy.
• Know how to engage with NNLM for continued education training for consumer health outreach.

Application process

Up to four students will be selected to participate in the internship.

• To apply, submit a resume and a statement of your career goals to erica-lake@uiowa.edu. In your statement, indicate the program you are enrolled in as well as your year.
• The resume and statement are due by 12pm CT on December 2, 2024.
• Applicants will be informed of their acceptance by 12pm CT on December 9, 2024.

Tea Time with Librarians is a new interview program from the Indiana State Library debuted last week. The purpose of the program is to talk about all of the amazing things that Indiana libraries and library staff are doing for their communities.

“Libraries are important, relevant entities in their communities, providing much-needed resources and programming, and I want to give them an opportunity to brag about those things,” shared Lacey Klemm, Northwest regional coordinator for the Indiana State Library. The first few interviews will be with Indiana State Library staff. However, anyone in the state who is interested in participating in Tea Time with Librarians can email Lacey Klemm to make a request.

Episode one of Tea Time with Librarians, featuring Indiana State Library Professional Development Office supervisor Kara Cleveland, was available on, Tuesday Nov. 12 on the Indiana State Library’s YouTube channel. A new episode will become available the second Tuesday of each month.

The American Library Association Public Programs Office is seeking 5 advisors for Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Libraries as Leaders in Bridging Divides.

Started in 2014 by the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office, the Libraries Transforming Communities initiative seeks to provide community engagement resources and opportunities specific to the needs of library workers. Building off the work of prior phases of the initiative, this project will seek to strengthen community cohesion, promote civic engagement, and enhance critical thinking skills, positioning libraries as vital spaces for constructive dialogue and inclusion. As part of the project, ALA will offer a free e-course and comprehensive guide to help library workers lead community conversations on polarizing issues with the goal of bridging divides in their communities.

Link to call for advisors and application: https://www.ala.org/tools/librariestransform/libraries-transforming-communities/bridgingdivides/callforadvisors

Advisor Opportunity

ALA will select five project advisors to participate in this project from January 2025 to February 2026.

As a practitioner-focused initiative, participation and feedback from advisors will be crucial to the success of this project. Advisors will be selected for their experience with community engagement, library programming, and facilitation skills. Work experience in a library and active ALA membership is required.

Project advisors will be responsible for:

• Participating in virtual meetings on a quarterly basis, beginning January 2025 and ending February 2026;
• Providing written and verbal input on project deliverables;
• Serving as subject matter experts by suggesting relevant resources;
• And assisting with promoting project deliverables to their networks.

Honorarium: $500

How to Apply

Applicants will be asked to submit the following information:

• A brief statement addressing your interest in the position (600 words max) including any demonstrated community engagement, facilitation, and library programming experience.
• Your resume or CV (2 pages max).

Applications must be submitted through ALA’s grant management platform: ALA Apply

Questions may be directed to publicprograms@ala.org. All applicants will be notified of their status by December 9, 2024

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Tomorrow Night, November 19, 2024, at 7 pm CT/ 8 pm ET for the third 2024-2025 UIOWA SLIS Professional Development Series “Professional Growth Through Personal Engagement” session featuring Dr. Angela Fritz, “Future Forward: Emerging Career Paths for Archivists.” Dr. Angela Fritz is Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies. Dr. Fritz has held leadership positions at the Wisconsin Historical Society, the University of Notre Dame, and the Office of Presidential Libraries and Museums at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). In addition to teaching SLIS classes on archives and digital preservation, Dr. Fritz has engaged in several national service roles related to digital archives outreach, education, and advocacy, and is the author of Sustainable Enterprise Strategies for Optimizing Digital Stewardship: A Guide for Libraries, Archives, and Museums.

Mark Your Calendars for the upcoming events in the 2024-2025 Season:

December 3, 2024 @ 7 pm CT/ 8 pm ET

Amanda Jones, Author, Activist, and School Librarian

March 11, 2025 @ 7 pm CT/ 8 pm ET

Stacy Collins, Instructional Librarian and Geographer-at-Large

April 8, 2025 @ 7 pm CT/ 8 pm ET

Cyndee Landrum, Acting Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services

Follow UIOWA SLIS Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for further details about this event and more!

Please join us virtually for our November speaker. Students, alumni, and the broader LIS community are welcome to attend all speaker series events.

• This month is our last speaker for the fall 2024 semester. We will hear from an exceptionally experienced and dedicated youth services librarian, Denise Neujahr.

Neujahr has worked in public library youth services for 25 years. She enjoys bringing educational, creative, environmental, and diverse programs to children, teens, and families. Neujahr is passionate about forming connections with patrons and believes that libraries are invaluable safe havens, providing services and resources for everyone in the community. In 2023 she was honored to receive the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity from the American Library Association.

When/where: November 20, 7:00 p.m. Eastern via Zoom

Registration & more info: https://events.iu.edu/luddy-indianapolis/event/1550339-lis-industry-speaker-series-denise-neujahr-spokane-p

All speaker sessions are recorded. You may view each semester’s lineup and follow a link to recordings of past speaker sessions from our series page: https://luddy.indianapolis.iu.edu/events/lis-speaker-series.html

• This program has been approved for 1 LEU (Library Education Unit) through the Indiana State Library. Please reference their continuing education site and approved providers page for self-documentation guidance and more information.