Opioid Crisis Response

Public Libraries Respond to the Opioid Crisis with Their Communities

Word cloud of Public Library Response to the Opioid Crisis with libraries, staff and training the largest words; with community next in size; followed by people, fentanyl, and Narcan; then public and naloxone; surrounded by opioid, partnership, information, response, prevention, and resource.

As the impact of the opioid epidemic has been felt across the country, public libraries have joined with other community organizations to address new needs and demands related to the crisis.

In 2017, the opioid epidemic was declared a national public health emergency. In 2018, PLA began its collaboration with OCLC to collect and share knowledge and resources to support public libraries and their partners in addressing the opioid crisis. Visit the project website to explore all the project resources, including:

eight case studies exploring a diverse set of communities;
a summary report;
call to action white paper with resources and recommendations;
archived webinars; and
the “Opioid Crisis Support Kit for Public Libraries”.

PLA acknowledges and appreciates the all the public libraries that contributed to these resources, as well as the project team and steering committee for their work. ], Public Libraries Respond to the Opioid Crisis with Their Communities was funded through a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) [project number LG-00-18-0298-18 culminated in 2020.