Do you believe in the healing power of reading? Do you feel that your library could do more to help people in recovery from substance abuse? Is your library an innovator in these domains? Then you’re in the right place!
Welcome to Libraries Advancing Community Learning to Reduce Substance Use. This site is the culmination of the work of librarians, social workers, and others inspired to make a positive impact in our own communities, by helping and inspiring others to learn more and do more to provide services and learning opportunities around the topic of substance use. We hope you will find something in these pages that will assist you in your own efforts to create a healthier and happier library and community.
Toolkit
In collaboration with librarians and experts in recovery services around the country we have created this toolkit to provide library staff and administration resources for learning about, discussing, and implementing ideas for working with communities to address issues related to substance use disorder. We’ve included talking points, programming ideas, and financial considerations among many other topics. Everything you need is collected in one convenient place. We recommend starting here.
Interested in learning more about the people and process behind the toolkit? Read about the forum where we came together to begin the process of sharing our knowledge and resources with each other resulting in this site and the toolkit.
Further Reading and Additional Resources
Looking to learn more? Experts in the field and partner organizations are working to address the opioid epidemic in libraries as well. Here you’ll find a few of the great resources others have created that we have found helpful. Included are guides created by WebJunction, The Colorado State Library and Sacramento Public Library.
Have suggestions of resources we should add? Contact Jenny Bossaller at bossallerj@missouri.edu
White Paper
This white paper presents the rationale, method, and results of a national forum that sought to introduce and/or reinforce library workers’ knowledge of and commitment to people in their communities who want to change their relationship with substances or who are affected by substance use disorder. Here, “substances” includes prescribed and non-prescribed drugs and alcohol.
Public libraries have, for years, served as a community center or third space (Waters, 2023). In recent years, libraries have taken on a more prominent role in the wellness sector by hosting exercise classes and health screenings, serving as connectors to social services, and sometimes by employing social workers or peer navigators. While the health-related role is generally positively perceived, there are caveats regarding what libraries can do, how health-related services fit into the overall mission of the library, and how the presence of people with substance use disorder (SUD) affects the safety of the library space.