Wellness Collection Unveiled

The UW-Madison Libraries are pleased to announce the creation of a Wellness Collection, held at College Library, featuring popular, current non-fiction related to mental health and wellness. Books in the collection feature wellness topics such as happiness, resilience, thriving, healing, empowerment, and mindfulness.

The collection strives to represent a multitude of needs, experiences, and intersectional identities, reflecting our campus community. It centers who is being represented in wellness literature and prioritizes materials introducing the unique perspectives and needs of underserved and marginalized communities. We actively seek materials from the perspective of a neurodivergent population as well as resources for a variety of learner types.

This kind of collection may appeal most to individuals in a vulnerable position, and library staff want to be sure the materials are accessible to all. We want the collection to be a safe and useful space as much as possible. Both print and electronic formats are included, so books are accessible both in the building and from the privacy of home.

Perpetual access to the collection will be maintained — even as featured titles change over time to stay current — because we believe that wellness literature is a genre that has enduring academic value. Not only does it provide social context for the time period in which it was written and published, but it holds potential for academic analysis as a genre. Selections are currently on display and the collection as a whole can be found adjacent to the Career & Student Success Collection in Open Book, Room 1250.