[The recording of this webinar is now available]

We know that people need access to different types of information to help them make better decisions about their health and well-being, and how important it is that we work together to help make this information available when and where it is needed.

Library and knowledge services are key to this process, but how can we get the message across to policy makers, disaster leads, other professionals and communities that librarians and their services are not only places to get access to information, but are also essential partners in the production, sharing and use of information around disaster health including disaster preparedness and risk reduction?

Siobhan Champ-Blackwell will be presenting ways librarians can advocate for themselves by initiating and developing relationships with relevant local, state, and federal officials and agencies, as well as with emergency responders.

Dr. Lenny Rhine will be presenting on his experience with the Research4Life Advocacy Toolkit and its application in different scenarios.

Join us in a webinar to learn from what other libraries are already doing in getting the most effective messages about the roles of libraries to such stakeholders.

Register for the webinar. Check the timezone where you are.

Presenter Biographies

Siobhan Champ-Blackwell works in the National Library of Medicine Public Services Division. She is responsible for managing the Disaster Information Specialist Training Program, and coordinates with the Medical Library Association to maintain the MLA Disaster Information Specialization Certificate. In addition, she is the content editor for the Disaster Lit® Database for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, and manages digital communication tools for the Disaster Information Management Research Center.

Dr. Lenny Rhine is the coordinator of the ‘E-Library Training Initiative’.  This Librarians Without Borders® / Medical Library Association project has been funded by the Elsevier Foundation (EF) since 2007. The project’s principal activities are conducting workshops and the developing/updating training material for Hinari (www.who.int/hinari/) and Research4Life (www.research4life.org) programs – a group of collaborative United Nations Agencies and Partner Publishers projects for access to over 100,000 e-journals and books plus over 20 other resources for institutions in low-income countries. 

Since 2007, Lenny has conducted 70+ HINARI and Research4Life (R4L) workshops in 41 countries and developed/updated more than 20 training modules for the various programs.  Lenny also coordinates the LWB/EF Research4Life Grant awards.  Since 2016, 15 ($4-6,000) proposals have been funded.  The projects range from R4L workshops to the development of videos and courses including Developing Systematic Reviews in Resource-poor Environments.