School Libraries Supporting Mental Health in Rural Communities: Strengths, Opportunities and Barriers

This project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, looks at the capacity of rural school libraries to support mental health and build partnerships with school counselors and teachers, with the intention of creating a list of best practices and discussion points for a national action agenda for mental health literacy.

Through focus groups, interviews and surveys, the research team incorporated the perspectives of school librarians, school counselors and school administrators. The team also analyzed mental health resources in rural school and public libraries.

This talk will focus on insights from this research, including partnerships between school counselors and school librarians, increasing awareness of librarians’ organic practices in supporting mental health, and creating a policy agenda to support the mental health needs of rural children and teenagers.

Denice Adkins is a professor at the School of Information Science & Learning Technologies, University of Missouri, and co-editor of Journal of Education for Library & Information Science. She has been a Fulbright Scholar to Honduras, Fulbright Specialist to India, president and treasurer of REFORMA (The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking), secretary-treasurer and membership director of Association for Library and Information Science Education, and councilor-at-large for the American Library Association. Her research interests include public and school libraries, services to the Latinx community, services in rural areas and services to diverse populations.