The pandemic has brought about the opportunity and necessity of a focus on wellness in libraries. While working from home at the Markham Public Library, staff have participated in various wellness workshops as a team at weekly town hall meetings and initiated a bibliotherapy project in our library. We have also started using tools such as Not Myself Today, which helps to raise awareness and create an understanding of mental health. At every town hall meeting we each anonymously submit how we feel into a mentimeter link, which displays a word cloud for everyone to see. In these meetings we are also able to voice any questions or concerns about library service during the pandemic. Aside from my participation in weekly wellness workshops, I helped create the bibliotherapy project, which allows for customers including staff to sign up to receive book suggestions to help individuals focus on mental health and healing. Included with book suggestions are also community resources to help participants. The book suggestions and resources are catered to each individual's area of healing that they indicate at the time of signing up. As a part of the project, we have also written and edited blog articles surrounding wellness including community resources as well as reading lists.
