Public Libraries as Key Partners for Advancing Health Equity.

Abstract

[ ]it was estimated that 171 million registered users, or 52% of the US population, visited public libraries more than 1 35 billion times over the course of one year 1 Lower-income Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans are more likely to affirm that public libraries positively affect their lives and communities than are other Americans 2 US public libraries and public library staff have provided safe spaces and intensive support for people experiencing mental illness and substance abuse, homelessness, immigration challenges, and trauma 3 Even in disenfranchised communities, such as many in the segregated neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois, amid area gun violence, deep poverty, and isolation, libraries offer a safe space, and librarians are well trusted to support information access across racial/ethnic and other diversity divides NAVIGATING WELLNESS In recognition of the importance of disease and illness prevention to public health, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) was formed in 1984 as an independent group of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services 6 Building on the infrastructure developed in Health for All, researchers and the Library Partnership Advisory Committee successfully applied for National Library of Medicine grant funding to scale the partnership efforts beyond clinical trials-and to health and wellness more broadly [ ]a trial implemented in urban neighborhoods selected to reach diverse, underserved communities found that participatory research in the public library system offers a scalable approach to reduce cancer health disparities 7 The Health for All public libraryacademic partnership we describe is an e· ample of how public libraries can serve as a safe space to support health disparity populations in dismantling the information divides that perpetuate health inequities At this time, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionate adverse impact on health disparities populations in the United States, which may be further exacerbated if these populations forego or face barriers to participating in COVID-19 trials or utilizing COVID-19 vaccines or therapies that may be fortho:miing [ ]initiatives at public libraries such as Health for All an are now more important than ever