Libraries can play an important role in the health of their communities – providing programming and resources to patrons. But they also serve as a place for gathering.
Jenny Bossaller, a professor of library sciences at the University of Missouri recently sat down with Robin Westphal, the executive director of Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia, to talk about the important role public libraries can play, such as combating isolation and connecting communities.
Missouri Health is spending March 2025 exploring the intersection of public health and public libraries. If you have a story you'd like to share, contact us at smithbecky@missouri.edu.
Robin Westphal: One thing about a public library is that we've always been really good at adapting it to make sure that we remain relevant.
I think when you when you go into this profession, you're going to have to make sure that you are relevant and [are] continuing to evolve with what the needs of the community is.
We see, as in some cases, some funding cuts to public health, or people not having access as easily as they did before – the public library has to step in and fill those roles.
Jenny Bossaller: Yeah, one of my classes is on community partnerships, and so we talk about partnering with doctors, aging groups like AARP, certainly with preschools and colleges, schools.
There are all kinds of ways that libraries can partner, and a big component of that is one of the eight dimensions of health.
Because there are so many different ways that librarians can contribute to health, you know, whether it's through financial health or actual healthy bodies, mental health.
Simply not being lonely is a big way that –
Robin Westphal: Absolutely
Jenny Bossaller: – that libraries can contribute to their community's health because they have programs that are open to everybody and people of all ages.
Robin Westphal: And you know, Jenny, that makes me think of how important our outreach services are that we provide – those home visits to folks who otherwise would not be able to come into the library.
And what we recognize is that it is so much more than the fact that we're bringing them 10 or 12 books that they can read.
It is, we recognize, that in some cases, we're the only personal contact that they're having with another human being – when we come and do those deliveries.
And so, we make it a priority that, while we can't stay all day, we want to do more than just drop the books off. It is checking on and seeing how people truly are doing,
In some cases, that means making sure if we recognize that there's probably, maybe some health concerns that need to be addressed, that we are helping them.
Maybe you need to call your doctor. Do you have – is your son or daughter somewhere close where we can, you know, help make that connection?
Boy – that is just an additional layer of what it is that librarians are doing. The truly checking in on people in their homes.
