Central roles of public libraries in supporting their communities’ needs for information and beyond during the 1918 Influenza and COVID-19 Pandemics
In the opening keynote, Dr. Beth St. Jean will share her research findings regarding the many important contributions made by public libraries toward preventing and addressing infodemics during the 1918 influenza and the COVID-19 pandemics. These contributions help to fulfill the World Health Organization’s call to “strengthen the resilience of individuals and communities to infodemics,” ranging from providing the public with access to accurate information, offering literacy training, running programs to support people’s mental and physical health, providing information and resources that enable people to engage in crucially important health behaviors, and helping to address health inequities within their communities and beyond.
