Meet Rose, your Health & Senior Services Librarian

As our Health and Senior Services Librarian, Rose Barnes is your go-to for resources on health and wellness and senior services.

“I am most interested in exploring more ways to incorporate health and wellness programming into the library while also creating spaces for conversation and growth,” she says. “I am passionate about practicing yoga, baking, and travel, all of which I am sure I’ll draw inspiration from when planning programs and working with community groups.”

Rose loves helping people, especially older adults, with technology. Before the pandemic, she served Oak Park as a Digital Learning Librarian regularly visiting the Mills Park Tower apartments to help older adults with all things digital and technology. She says she hopes to use her background in digital learning to continue creating opportunities for technology programming and outreach geared toward seniors.

Partnerships & programs

In her role, Rose collaborates closely with librarians curating the health and wellness collection, develops related programming, and cultivates community partnerships based on healthy living.

She works in partnership with the Oak Park Township, Park District of Oak Park, and Village of Oak Park on the Dementia Friendly Oak Park initiative.

What are you reading, watching & listening to?

Rose says: “I am currently reading Eat a Peach by David Chang, watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS, Derry Girls on Netflix, and A Discovery of Witches on Sundance/AMC, and listening to the audiobook of So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (available in Media on Demand/Libby and Hoopla).”