Laupus Library Alignment Overview

The William E. Laupus Health Sciences Library has served and partnered with health sciences programs at ECU since 1969. Our librarians are experts in educating and supporting faculty and students in skills like literature searching for best evidence, data management practices, and collecting and making current and historical health information available for research and curricular needs. The library also leads technology access and discovery for the health sciences campus by connecting users with equipment and devices that innovate learning and stimulate creative thinking. The library’s 70,000 square feet of space for collaboration and engagement provides students and faculty alike an opportunity to work and discover together, focus on individual study, and connect in classroom and meeting environments that foster reflection and critical thinking.

Mission

Laupus Library connects the health education, research, and clinical programs of ECU, Eastern Area Health Education Center (EAHEC), and health care practitioners at ECU Health affiliates across eastern North Carolina with quality health information.

Vision

The library is the campus leader for information discovery, innovation to advance health education, and collaborations that serve the greater good.

Summary of Unit Strategies

M1.2.1: The Laupus Library, including the Country Doctor Museum, will promote opportunities for internships to appropriate ECU academic departments, which will lead to an increase in experiential learning opportunities for ECU students.

M1.2.2: The library’s Virtual Reality Lab and 3D printing service are sites for experience and transformative learning, and the library will encourage their use by hosting workshops to support creative use of both technologies by ECU students.

M2.1.1: The library’s collaborations with community health workers in eastern NC will be expanded to include health information literacy trainings in a “train the trainer model.” The community health workers will utilize this training in health outreach sessions provided in partnership with public libraries in eastern NC.

M2.1.2: Laupus will partner with the ECU Lifelong Learning program to provide the HealthierU course, offering learners information on how to find and evaluate quality health information.

M3.2.1: The Country Doctor Museum will continue to develop positive relationships with Nash County area stakeholders by hosting an annual “stakeholder event” that will solicit feedback used to improve CDM community engagement.

M3.2.2: Recognizing their significance to ECU as an external partner, the Outreach Librarian will reach out to community colleges with health sciences programs to ensure that students are aware of the collections and services that Laupus provides for their use.

V1.2.1: Laupus librarians acknowledge skills and awareness gaps for new Library and Information School graduates who are interested in pursuing work in health and biosciences libraries and will develop a “Bridge Program” to educate and prepare these learners for the health libraries workforce.

V1.2.2: The History Collections and Country Doctor Museum will increase access and discovery of our historical collections through online platforms by identifying new materials for digitization and developing online exhibits for the collections that will be promoted through news and social media outlets.

V2.3.1: The library will work closely with colleagues at Academic Library Services, ITCS, within the Research Office and/or Graduate School to collaborate on research data-related trainings for ECU students and faculty to ensure they are aware of best practices in data management and are in compliance with funding mandates and competencies required for successful career journeys.

V2.3.2: Library supervisors will work with library employees to identify professional development opportunities to support their individual career journeys.

V3.3.1: Laupus librarians will collaborate with faculty in the CHHP Departments of Health Education and Promotion and Department of Social Work, ECU Health personnel, and regional public libraries to deliver technology and education that will increase health literacy for eastern NC citizens.

V3.3.2: Laupus librarians will develop and disseminate research describing barriers to digital information access for migrant farmworkers in NC, with the intent to advocate for greater equity in access for this important community in our state.

V3.3.3: The Outreach Librarian will provide library and health information-related instruction to ECU Health centers, leading to better information-seeking skills for health providers.

Brief Targeted Narrative

Discovery, learning, and innovation are key aspects of our vision, and the strategies library employees have developed will provide direction around these values for the next five years.

The library is a place of discovery. Learners interact with our employees, seeking knowledge that leads to the discovery of new ideas, practices, and positive health outcomes. Teaching our researchers how and why it is important to effectively organize, manage, and make their data openly available on the web contributes to the common good of science and promotes scientific discovery. Digitizing more of our important historical collections also contributes to discovery by allowing researchers and learners access to information that would otherwise have only been findable in our physical collections. Experiential learning is also an avenue for discovery, and so we will partner with campus colleges and schools to provide sites for their learners to engage in internships either at the library or at our Country Doctor Museum.

Providing opportunities for learning underscores much of what we do at Laupus, so it is probably not surprising that many of our strategies include an emphasis on instructional activities. We will teach classes to health sciences learners in the community college system who may not otherwise have health sciences librarian expertise available to them in their school setting. This also allows Laupus to promote the use of the library space and materials to these eligible users. We also intend to instruct community health workers, ECU Health providers, and Lifelong Learning participants on how to find quality health information online for their specific needs. Outreach to the community, whether in the healthcare sector or public at large, will take up a larger part of our strategic work in the next five years because we want to grow our support for health literacy and learning to increase well-being in eastern NC.

Innovation is a core value for ECU and for Laupus Library. Several of our strategies provide opportunities to support innovative activities for our students and faculty, including the development of workshops for our VR Lab and a 3D printing service that we expect will inspire creative ideas and may lead to advances in product and device development. We also have an innovative approach to developing the health sciences librarianship workforce – the Bridge program to educate library and information school students and new graduates on principles of health sciences librarianship that might not otherwise be taught in the curriculum.

Contact Director Beth Ketterman with questions or opportunities to collaborate.