“Public libraries in the United States are civic institutions that perform critical functions extending far ‘beyond books’. However, policy makers and public health practitioners rarely consider libraries to be community-level resources that can advance population health or address health disparities, despite several characteristics that could render them highly effective at doing so. With an estimated 17,000 public libraries nationwide and four million visits each day, libraries have extensive population reach. Furthermore, unlike other service-providing institutions (e.g., medical institutions and certain social welfare institutions), libraries are widely trusted by the public. These factors make them an opportune space for the coordination and delivery of health-promoting services.

This scoping study examined public libraries’ potential as a community-level resource for reducing place-based health disparities. The U.S. has some of the largest health disparities in the world: life expectancy varies by up to 20 years between some counties.  Within York City, for example, life expectancy in Brownsville, Brooklyn is 74 compared to 85 in the Upper East Side, a difference equivalent to living in the U.S. versus Brazil. Public libraries are well positioned to address these stark disparities. Libraries are paradigmatic of a community-level resource. Over 95% of Americans live within a public library service area 2 and diverse sectors of the population already use public libraries: in the last year, half of Americans with annual incomes under $30,000 visited a library, as did half of African Americans and nearly two-thirds of Americans with college degrees. 

Yet unlike parks, transportation, or environmental health, libraries are rarely included in explicit plans to reduce neighborhood level health disparities."