Bibliotherapy: A Collaboration Goes to the Web

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Bibliotherapy A Collaboration Goes to the Web

• Paula McMillen Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson
• Oregon State University
• ALA National Conference - Poster
• Orlando, FL June 26, 2004

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AbstractAfter four years of revisions, a
collaborative project involving library and
counselor education faculty on evaluating
therapeutic use of child/adolescent literature
has made the leap to the World Wide Web.
Originally designed as a paper and pencil measure
for training graduate students in bibliotherapy,
the tool was upgraded to a Web-accessible format
and Web-accessible database of completed
evaluations. Graduate counseling and library
interns were involved in the process of refining
the evaluation items to insure Web-based
compatibility. Future directions include Website
usability testing, tracking therapeutic
literature use trends, and determining tool
effectiveness for increasing competence of
emerging counselors in literature use for
therapy. An overview of bibliotherapy needs and
benefits, review of project development and
implementation, and presentation of the current
Bibliotherapy Website will be presented. Although
this project emerged from collaboration in an
academic arena, previous project presentations at
library elicited strong interest from public
librarians in the potential value of such a
database of evaluations for working with their
patron populations.
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Bibliotherapy Education Project

• The birth of this four year project began with a
  cup of coffee and a simple conversation. We
  pondered on the use of books by various helping
  professionals . Spontaneously, we posed two
  questions to each other,
• How do therapists, teachers, etc. know what
  books to recommend? and
• How do they choose and evaluate materials?
• the project was born.

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Bibliotherapy a rose by any other name

• (AKA) Known by many names
• Bilbio-counseling
• Biblio-guidance
• Biblio-psychology
• Book matching
• Literatherapy
• Library Therapeutics
• Literapeutics
• Reading Therapy
• And many more

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Defining Bibliotherapy

• Use of reading materials for help in solving
  personal problems or for psychiatric therapy
• Websters Collegiate 10th Ed., 1997
• Literally involves treatment through books
• Pardeck Pardeck, 1998
• Guided reading of written materials to help the
  reader grow in self awareness
• Harris Hodges, 1995
• Process of dynamic interaction between the
  personality of the reader and literature under
  the guidance of a trained helper
• Shrodes, 1950

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Benefitsof Bibliotherapy

• Increases Empathetic Understanding of Others
  (cultures, lifestyles and lived experiences)
• Enhances Insight and Integration
• Promotes Coping Skills
• Provides Information and Alternatives
• Stimulates Discussion of Feelings and Ideas
• Increases Enjoyment of Literature and Reading

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-Problem Statement-

• Books are widely used in clinical settings
• Limited training, tools or strategies for
  emerging or practicing clinicians
• Limited funds/materials for graduate students
• Criteria for selecting materials for a working
  collection
• Criteria for selecting materials for clients

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The Learning Objectives

• To increase understanding of the uses of
  literature in therapy
• To provide a tool to help practitioners
  consistently evaluate materials
• To offer supervision in evaluating materials
  use in therapeutic settings
• To build a library collection to support
  curriculum and research
• To increase the availability of evaluated books
  to subsequent students
• To increase the number of book evaluations
  available by making the evaluation tool more
  widely available
• To organize resources for learning about
  Bibliotherapy finding books

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Process Web Relocation

• Reformatting the Evaluation Tool
• Paper pencil ? Web based
• Narrative ? categories, ratings, short answers
• Library school intern
• Tooling Up to Technology
• Web design
• Database design
• 3. Usability testing
• Graduate counseling students
• 4. Communication
• Regular team meetings
• Project E-mail list
• Other stakeholders
• 5. Sponsorship of the Web site
• Page appearance
• Ongoing funding mechanisms
• Administrative Support

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Project Methods

• Literature review
• Articulate clinical criteria
• Expert face validity
• Learning module
• Student involvement
• Survey research
• Cross-disciplinary consultation
• Regular communication, feedback, input
• Mutual respect for unique contributions

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Research Discoveries

• Literature Review
• Widespread use
• Years of research
• Specific topics and populations
• Few practice and evaluation guidelines
• Electronic development
• Complex
• Plan infrastructure to accommodate future
  research
• Graduate Counseling students tested pre- and
  post-learning module (self-report survey)
• Significant increase in knowledge of
  Bibliotherapy benefits and uses
• Significant increase in comfort level with using
  literature in therapy reported
• Clinical Supervision
• Practice and teaching lead to competence

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Future Directions

• Continued usability testing of overall Web site
  design
• Further development of database search options
• Increase flexibility of site and database
  structure for ease of maintenance
• Establish ongoing funding mechanisms
• Promote use to librarians and helping
  professionals to build database of evaluated
  literature

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Future Projects

• Create Librarian Guide
• Analyze Database
• Fund Student Assistantships
• Refine Evaluation Tool
• Create Therapist Guide
• Enhance Website Content
• Upgrade Website Functions
• Publish and Disseminate
• Refine Teaching

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Lessons Learned

• You cant over-communicate
• Regular meetings of the collaborators are
  essential for progress
• Find money! Aggressively solicit grants, donors,
  sponsors
• Collaboration is messy complex but worth it!

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For more information http//bibliotherapy.libra
ry.oregonstate.edu

• Dr. Paula McMillen
• paula.mcmillen_at_oregonstate.edu
• Phone [phone]
• Valley Library
• Oregon State University
• Corvallis, Oregon 97331
• Dr. Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson
• dale.pehrsson_at_oregonstate.edu
• Phone [phone]
• New School of Education
• 311 Education Hall
• Oregon State University
• Corvallis, Oregon 97331

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