Bibliotherapy Education Project

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Bibliotherapy Education Project

• Paula McMillen Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson
• Oregon State University
• Hawaii International Conference on Arts
  Humanities
• Honolulu, HI Jan 16, 2005

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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
• Contain creativity and focus

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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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