Mount Carmel Health Sciences Library is a medical and academic library serving 5 residency programs, medical staff and approximately 1,100 nursing students from the adjacent college.
Mount Carmel’s librarians proactively meet users’ needs. Embeded librarians within medical groups offer immediate and exceptional service. On demand services conveniently deliver materials to users through interoffice mail. And the library has extended library hours, making reference help available 24/7.
Stevo Roksandic is the library’s director. Stevo and his team focus on library users and underserved communities by creating exceptional learning spaces and actively reaching out to the community. One such example is Mount Carmel’s Community Health Resource Center. Through the center and its programming in and outside of their physical location, the library provides important materials and classes on nutrition, breastfeeding, diabetes, cancer and other consumer health topics.
The Tool Library is a non-profit program operated by Rebuilding Together Central Ohio. A free service for Franklin County residents, the Tool Library offers tool and equipment loans and operates much like a traditional library. The library has existed for 30 years and is one of only 60 tool libraries in the United States. The Tool Library has 2500 members and around 180 nonprofit partners.
Borrowers apply for membership, work with library staff to check out materials and are accountable for returning them on time and in good condition. The library has a large collection with a broad variety of tools. Lawn tools and mowers, hand tools, power washers, wheel barrows, ladders and saws are some of the popular items loaned by the Tool Library.
In addition to providing the materials, the Tool Library also offers “How to” information, workshops and advice on how to use the tools for different projects. Tools from the library help support 45 community gardens, and the staff maintains a demonstration garden.
Julie Smith, executive director, shared an example of how the tool library helped the community. A local elementary school teacher needed to have her stage refinished because her students were getting splinters when the danced on it. The project was outside of her school’s budget, so she borrowed materials and with the help of her father was able to complete the project on her own.
Founded in 1817, the State Library of Ohio continues to be an amazing resource that is open to the public. The library is a federal depository and has a remarkable collection of rare materials. Some of those materials include a 1552 Complete Works of Martin Luther, medieval works on vellum, many original WWII posters and even a handwritten letter from President George Washington.
The library is also an excellent genealogical resource. For example, their Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans’ Home annual reports could be considered a registry of orphans and house important information not necessarily found through the U.S. Census. The reports, along with other materials in the library, help genealogists fill in the details of their research “like the colors of a painting.”
Shannon Kupfer is the library’s digital and tangible media cataloger. Through her own research, she was able to enhance the collection’s Ohio Holocaust survivor materials by reaching out and gathering additional details from a survivor living in Cleveland. By doing so, Shannon helped preserve important information that would have been otherwise lost.
