Severe Weather Engagement: A New Resource from The Healing Library

Presentation Description

This one-hour training will introduce participants to The Healing Library and its newest resource kit, Severe Weather Engagement. Together, learners will explore The Healing Library’s mission and approach, tour its collection of free, ready-to-use resources, and discuss how these materials can be adapted for libraries and the communities they serve. The session will also provide an in-depth look at the Severe Weather Engagement kit, including its books, activities, discussion prompts, and other tools designed to help children and families understand, prepare for, and cope with severe weather events. Participants will leave with practical ideas for incorporating the kit into library programming, community outreach, and disaster preparedness efforts.

Speaker Bio

Megan Schadlich, MLIS, is the founder and director of The Healing Library. This project creates lendable kits for families who have experienced trauma to create a self-guided journey of healing utilizing high-quality picture books, discussion guides, and holistic play, art, environmental, and bibliotherapy activities. (Think LibGuides come to life!) Each kit is rooted in Every Child Ready to Read standards, Social Emotional Learning core competencies, dialogic reading instruction, and more. With over 20,000 downloads since launching in 2017, the kits have been used to address traumas while building resilience toolkits by average families as well as in response to community traumas such as following devastating wildfires and mass shootings. 

Megan is also the author of Cooking Up Library Programs Teens & Tweens Will Love and has contributed to multiple books on tween/teen mindfulness. She is a two-time recipient of the YALS Writing Award, an IFLA fellowship winner, and has received multiple information/library related scholarships. She has been invited to speak and participate in Etsy’s Reimagining Manufacturing Summits and multiple IMLS think tanks. She is well regarded as a speaker and facilitator and has presented on numerous library and information-related subjects for Library Journal magazine, School Library Journal magazine, YALSA, ALSC, multiple state library associations, the Fred Rogers Institute, and more. During her time as Experience Designer & Coordinator at the Chattanooga Public Library, she founded and designed their Sewing Lab located in their 4th-floor makerspace. During her time with Dokk1 in Denmark, she assisted with the SmartLibraries project and the second iteration of the Design Thinking for Libraries Toolkit. She believes in designing positive futures while honoring what’s come before her. 

By registering for this class, you are agreeing to the NNLM Code of Conduct