Abstract
The Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies received a Carnegie-Whitney grant from the American Library Association to build a tool with the purpose of facilitating library resources for creative and informal bibliotherapy. This paper complements the authors’ presentation and workshop at the 2016 conference, where they experimented with a novel interactive format of sharing knowledge to inspire substance abuse librarians to promote bibliotherapy as a potential treatment modality. The two-year project has made a lot of progress to date, such as formulating selection criteria, determining target audiences and choosing the appropriate platforms, designing a vetting process, and compiling a preliminary bibliography. The paper also summarizes a mock bibliotherapy session drawing upon evidence-based practices as the second part of the presentation. Participants read a short text and were encouraged to analyze it based on prefabricated questions and talking points similar to a book club discussion. The authors have benefited tremendously from the conference by building on the collective expertise of the SALIS members.