Spatial Literacy in Public Health:: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations

Spatial literacy--the ability to visualize, understand, and use the properties of space to communicate, reason, and problem-solve--is relevant across a wealth of disciplines. Spatial Literacy in Public Health: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations offers ideas and plans for collaborative spatial literacy teaching and learning initiatives focusing on geographic information systems (GIS)-based and GIS-related instruction through the lens of public health topics.

Chapters include step-by-step learning activities, teaching tips, recommended readings, and four-color maps as well as other useful illustrations--these not only support student learning, but also professional development for librarians interested in spatial literacy instruction and in pitching such instruction to potential faculty collaborators. Interdisciplinary topics include supply chain management, social media campaigns, data visualization, racial disparities, and other demographic themes related to immunization patterns, epidemiology, recreation access, and community health and environmental health/environmental science.

Spatial Literacy in Public Health offers specific plans for collaborative, interdisciplinary spatial literacy instruction and activities. Chapters also connect with supplementary content in the ACRL Framework for Infor­mation Literacy Sandbox (https: //sandbox.acrl.org), including activity-focused slide decks and more, all findable with the tag "#SpatialLit" and freely available. Learning activities support open-source tools, open educational resources (OER), and other institutional cost-saving initiatives, and the ability to adapt from in-person to virtual instruction settings.