Expressions of student life during Covid: A librarian and social worker collboration

Abstract

The poster describes a grant-funded project designed to foster connections with students coping with the mental health challenges of student life during the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Alberta, located in Edmonton, Canada. Academic librarians teamed up with social workers from University Wellness Supports to deliver online workshops where students could receive encouragement and support to creatively express their student experience of Covid creatively in whatever artistic medium they wished. In addition to workshops, the team distributed 25 art kits to students, and received submissions of artistic expressions for publication in a print and electronic book. Eleven creative works, consisting of drawings, paintings, digital art, collage, poetry, and music, will serve as a permanent artifact of the experience of student life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book's creative content from cover to cover, including its design, is a direct result of student work and is student-owned through a creative commons CC-BY licence. The project team collaborated with colleagues from University Communications, Library Publishing, and a student graphic designer to complete the book and release it to the University community.