“our doors are open to everybody”： public libraries as common ground for public health -凯发官网入口

bour doors are open to everybody^: public librariesas common ground for public healthanna uma morgan & roxanne dupuis &eliza davenport whiteman & bernadette d’alonzo &carolyn c. cannusciopublished online: 9 january 2017# the new york academy of medicine 2017a fundamental problem of american cities is that theyare highly bsorted,^ with people divided by race, class,age, religion, and ethnicity, according to the urbanscholar mindy fullilove [1]. philadelphia is no excep-tion,asoneofthefivemostsegregatedofthe100largestus cities [2]. in philadelphia, as in cities across theusa, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and evensupermarkets often reflect these stark demographic, cul-tural, and social divides, leaving few opportunities forpeople to interact with others from different back-grounds [3–6].public libraries may be able to help address thislimiting feature of urban life, according to results froma community needs assessment we conducted in phila-delphia. in street intercept interviews with 77 residents[11], participants expressed how the city’s diversity wasboth an asset and a challenge—and they saw a role forthe library in fostering intergroup relationships and un-derstanding. this finding was particularly compellingbecause ofits relevance acrosstheusa,wherethere areover 9000 public libraries, which host over 1.5 billionvisits annually [7]. public libraries are free and open toall, and are seen by nine out of ten americans as valu-able to community life [8]. this shared view is remark-able at this moment of deep cultural and political strife.many of our interviews were conducted in southphiladelphia, the site of a new community health andliteracy center that combines a ground floor publiclibrary, adult and pediatric health clinics, and a recrea-tion center. with over 20% of residents reporting beingforeign born, south philadelphia is one of the city’smost diverse neighborhoods [9]. many neighborhoodresidents spoke of a desire for increased interculturalexchange, improved access to english as a secondlanguage (esl) courses, and sustained support forrefugees and immigrant families. they saw the publiclibrary as a logical site for all of these activities. onecommunity resident discussed the need to strengthenbethnic relations,^ and bbring all the cultures togetherto sit down to talk, maybe hash out stereotypes orperceived stereotypes that they have about each otherand just flatten it out so we can all have a better under-standing of who we are^ (fig. 1).many of the residents emphasized the need for addi-tional opportunities for children and youth, who theyfeared were not well served by existing schools andprograms—leading many young people to engage inunsafe or illegal activities. these concerns werej urban health (2017) 94:1–3doi 10.1007/s11524-016-0118-xa. u. morganrobert wood johnson clinical scholars, perelman school ofmedicine, university of pennsylvania, philadelphia, pa, usar. dupuis : b. d’alonzocenter for public health initiatives, university of pennsylvania,philadelphia, pa, usae. d. whitemandepartment of city and regional planning, school of design,university of pennsylvania, philadelphia, pa, usac. c. cannuscio (*)department of family medicine and community health,perelman school of medicine, university of pennsylvania,philadelphia, pa, usae-mail: carolyncannu@gmail.com