Health Literacy and Privacy in a Pandemic World

This project will provide quality virtual information related to health and wellness privacy and literacy that librarians can use to better serve their communities. We will present this information as a series of four webinars for public library workers. We will also create high-quality informational resources which will form part of the webinar content but will also be designed to be shared on library social media at other times. Authoritative information about health and wellness privacy is both timely and in-demand. There is a lot of fear and anxiety surrounding health and wellness programs and devices with regard to their privacy practices and a lack of informative resources addressing these concerns. Libraries are well-positioned to meet this need. This project is designed to address concerns, deliver factual information, and break issues down into easy to digest takeaways regarding both individual and systemic privacy issues related to health and wellness. While this virtual program will focus on public librarians within NJ, NY, 2, and PA, the presentations will be recorded and can be made available to the broader field of librarians via the NNLM and the grant partner organizations. Topics covered within this program tentatively include health privacy 101, players in the healthcare industry, health technology and digital records, and telehealth. Printable PDFs and other informational materials from the speakers and contributors to the project will be included as shareable takeaways for libraries to promote objectives to patrons including translation into Chinese to meet the needs of this often underserved community. Presenters and grant recipients will share relevant information from Medline and the research program during the webinars and will encourage attendees to sign up.