I am eager to participate in the Hong Kong Laureate Forum to engage with leading scholars on public health, science engagement, and sustainability. My research explores the public health value of public libraries, positioning them as accessible places that address disparities in physical, social, and mental well-being and contribute to all levels of prevention. By highlighting public libraries' place in public health, my work emphasises their role in fostering bottom-up, community-driven, and sustainable health interventions.

The forum, hence, presents a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas, refine my research, and explore new perspectives on sustainable public health interventions. Engaging with experts from diverse fields will help me further develop my work and contribute to discussions on innovative approaches to prevention and health equity.

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

Public libraries are active partners in public health – not a metaphor, but a reality.

My research systematically examines their public health value, starting with a literature review on public health and library and information science.

My overarching scoping review maps the intersections between public libraries and public health, covering the dimensions of health in general, physical health, social well-being, mental health, learning and education, science engagement, sustainability, library planning and urbanism, and evidence-based design.

Building on these findings, I conduct case studies using semi-structured interviews for each public health value dimension, except learning and education which are intrinsic to all library services. These interviews reaffirm public libraries’ role in all levels of prevention – primordial, primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary – while also shaping health determinants and fostering sustainability (environmental, social, economic, and governance). With new discoveries from the field, I adopt grounded theory to include additional literature to enrich my findings.

To conclude, my research systematically examines the public health value of public libraries using primary and secondary sources, bringing attention to their significant role in public health and reshaping how both professionals and the general public perceive them.