Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
September 2014
Keywords
Health literacy, Health care providers, Public libraries, Library users, Reference transactions
Disciplines
Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Health Services Research | Information Literacy | Library and Information Science | Public Health Education and Promotion
Abstract
We assessed health care providers’ perspectives on libraries as a source of health information and elicited input on how to adequately prepare public librarians to provide health information services. Sample text-based reference transactions were shown to determine whether they think the health inquiries were adequately answered. Results showed that participants had favorable perspectives about public libraries, and thought that the public librarians’ role includes addressing the health literacy community needs. Participants provided recommendations for public librarians to improve health literacy. To enhance the ability of public librarians to meet the health literacy needs of their communities, diverse perspectives such as health care providers should be included in the development of a future training curriculum.
Recommended Citation
Van Ta Park, Lili Luo, and Denise Rosidi. "A Qualitative Examination about Providers’ Perceptions and Recommendations Regarding the Role of Public Librarians in Addressing Communities’ Health Literacy." Faculty Publications (2014).
Included in
Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Health Services Research Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Public Health Education and Promotion Commons
Comments
This article appears in the September 2014 issue of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries and can be found at this link.