How does health happen in public libraries? Ethical and emerging issues

Abstract

The past five years have featured increased multidisciplinary interest in how health happens in public libraries. This panel will explore ethical and emerging issues associated with conducting research on this topic. After lightning talks from five panelists, the audience will engage in interactive, small group discussions focused on how we can form and sustain meaningful research relationships with public libraries and public librarians, for health‐related and for other research. Through this discussion, we will outline new research directions on how health happens in public libraries and challenge ourselves to do more to understand this and other processes in public libraries.

Navigating complex authorities: Intellectual freedom, information literacy and truth in pandemic STEM information

“…Communicating scientific information to non-scientists is difficult, and the inability to do so has contributed to widespread mistrust and misunderstanding of scientific concepts and information (Bangani, 2021; Cornell University Library, 2021; Kari and Savolainen, 2007; Lenstra et al, 2018). There is emerging research, albeit limited, on the role of North American public libraries, how and where academic libraries work with communities around public health information, and the types of information typically shared in public library settings (Lenstra et al, 2018).…”

“…Communicating scientific information to non-scientists is difficult, and the inability to do so has contributed to widespread mistrust and misunderstanding of scientific concepts and information (Bangani, 2021; Cornell University Library, 2021; Kari and Savolainen, 2007; Lenstra et al, 2018). There is emerging research, albeit limited, on the role of North American public libraries, how and where academic libraries work with communities around public health information, and the types of information typically shared in public library settings (Lenstra et al, 2018). This scholarship focuses on the preparedness of library staff to support health information seeking, how the types of sources are typically more general-knowledge-based, how library programmes and services contribute to health and wellness outcomes, and how libraries impact the socio-economic and sociocultural determinants of health (Lenstra et al, 2018).…”

“…There is emerging research, albeit limited, on the role of North American public libraries, how and where academic libraries work with communities around public health information, and the types of information typically shared in public library settings (Lenstra et al, 2018). This scholarship focuses on the preparedness of library staff to support health information seeking, how the types of sources are typically more general-knowledge-based, how library programmes and services contribute to health and wellness outcomes, and how libraries impact the socio-economic and sociocultural determinants of health (Lenstra et al, 2018). Outside of this research on the health information work of public libraries, there is little written on how to engage with the broader scientific community.…”

Vulnerability and meeting the needs of people experiencing homelessness in public libraries

“…Other scholars have explored public libraries as places that support public health, particularly to vulnerable populations [Morgan et al, 2016]. Additional work has examined how public libraries provide consumer health education and wellness programming (Lenstra, Rubenstein, Smith, Flaherty, & Gibson, 2018).…”