91tvӰԺ

Community Impact

The 91tvӰԺ School of Information is committed to making a positive community impact in the Tampa Bay area. Through those efforts we have various grant projects that have allowed us to help our local community. Below you will find some of the current projects and information on how they are making an impact to those in need.

RESPONSIVE LIBRARIANSHIP LAB

The 91tvӰԺ iSchool Responsive Librarianship Lab (RLL) is the umbrella program for the delivery of bibliotherapy services to the 91tvӰԺ community. It is part of the 91tvӰԺ School of Information's library (LIBR & INFO SCI) and can be found on WorldCat.

The RLL team is a multidisciplinary team led by professors from the 91tvӰԺ School of Information and a diverse array of graduate and undergraduate students. Each team member brings a unique set of expertise and talents to our research and initiatives. 

Researchers at the RLL address key challenges at the intersection of people, information, and technology in multidisciplinary ways with a vision that drives our research to impact the everyday lives of our community. Using evidence-based methodologies grounded in the Social Sciences and computational tools from the Digital Humanities, researchers at the RLL have created a unique, four-track text-based therapy scheme that provides real results for library users.   

The Henrietta Smith Library serves as the hub for all of the RLL's research initiatives and is part of the 91tvӰԺ School of Information's library (LIBR & INFO SCI), an information center dedicated to research and the education of the school's Library and Information Science (LIS) students.

Morton Plant Pediatric Recovery Library

In 2019, a project team established the Morton Plant Pediatric Library (MPPL) at the Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Recovery Center, a 72-bed, co-ed facility and the only freestanding psychiatric hospital in Pasco County, FL. The project is using a framework of Responsive Librarianship, a data-driven research scheme dedicated to the delivery of personalized library services in response to an individual's mental health concern.

With over 300 titles in the collection, the project is growing to include group sessions and health literacy education, supported by a grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. The catalog can be found online at Morton Plant catalog. Titles in the catalog are tagged with themes, age ranges, and genres. A list of tags and bibliotherapy collection development resources can be found under Resources-Catalogs.

THE LIBRARIES BUILD COMMUNITIES INITIATIVE

The Libraries Build Communities Initiative is our grant-funded collaboration with the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library, Pasco County Public Library Cooperative, and the Temple Terrace Public Library designed to deliver therapeutic reading services together with community-based programming. Service delivery began in February 2021.

We offer weekly programs in collaboration with our community partners to help improve the lives of those who live in our community. Our services are delivered through evidence-based reading lists, online book clubs, and community-based library programming. Programming is guided by monthly themes to address the individual needs of each community. 

Story Strong programming also features an interdisciplinary partnership between librarians and social workers. The Responsive Librarianship Lab partners with the 91tvӰԺ School of Social Work to connect program participants to additional community resources in response to their unique needs.