The Public Library of the Future Could Stand as a Critical Force for Evidence-Based Health and Cancer Information

To set the scene for this commentary focused on the critical but also vast topic of the uncertain and disquieting future of publicly facing cancer information, I begin with a description of a recently published line drawing cartoon of a young girl holding a book while sitting next to what appears to be shelves containing other books.¹ The caption reads “And on this quiet morning in the year of 2026, Emma realized the library was a real place with real books, not just an app on her phone.” The truth can be painful.

On a more serious note, consider the words of the Roman Emperor, Cicero, who is reported to have declared: “If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.”² Or, moving closer to our own times, it is relevant to acknowledge the poignant opinion expressed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the role of the public library system: “I have an unshakable conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of using them.”³

And to the specific point of this commentary, the future role of public libraries in providing non-judgmental, apolitical, evidence-based cancer-related information and serving as a meaningful countervailing force against misinformation, there can be no more powerful statement than that attributed to Albert Einstein, “The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”⁴ 

Tax-supported public libraries have been in existence in the United States for almost 200 years.⁵ It is likely that a large percentage of Americans have their own story or stories related to a personal relationship with a local library during their youth or in later years. Perhaps it was a particular book or book series that inspired a love of reading, or a book club, or a community program centered around books or other educational activities. Of course, there are other types of libraries, including those within schools, universities, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations.

But the point of this commentary is to focus on the unique nature of public libraries for meaningful life-long education, perhaps beginning as early as several years prior to public (or private) kindergarten and continuing for many decades beyond the end of high school. And while the need for population wide publicly supported continuing education beyond the age of about 18 may have been of questionable value in generations past that is far from our current reality.

Today, and in the future, the relevance of efforts to help the individual and society at large understand and effectively respond to what will be a remarkably complex and rapidly changing information universe cannot be overstated. Public libraries through educational outreach will surely play a key role for many in attaining essential reading skills, improving financial and numerical literacy, and in achieving a sensible and practical real-world degree of critical thinking.

In the coming years within the domain of health and wellness we can be certain society will be absolutely flooded with deep-fake pictures, videos, podcasts, publications, and pronouncements that will challenge and aggressively seek to replace well-established basic, clinical, and regulatory science, as well as undermine the legitimate authority of effective public health leadership. How will we respond?

To be crystal clear, there is no intent in this commentary to suggest a particular political point of view. In current and yet to come discussions related to topics such as nutrition, wellness, exercise, obesity, cancer screening, and an ever increasing variety of proposed cancer prevention, diagnostic and treatment strategies, there will, and should be thoughtful and deliberate discussions, fervently held and expressed opinions, and in some settings rancorous debate involving both the existing and required science associated with proposed interventions.

Further, in the future this will increasingly include considerations of costs as well as the question of who is going to pay for any newly introduced strategy or intervention. And, of course, there will always be hard-core promotion, both overt and hidden.

How will people be able to make informed choices? Who should they trust to advise in both individual and community/public health decisions? What information should they demand to be able to review and evaluate in this process?

One can argue that in the future public libraries will have available for their patrons an expanding variety of quite sophisticated technologically advanced decision-support tools to mentor both younger and older individuals on existing beneficial and proposed health-related tactics. The information must be able to be presented in formats that permit meaningful independent review as well as careful analysis of claims related to health and wellness of individuals (and their families) and the community (public health).

And it is appropriate to acknowledge here that in the future AI (artificial intelligence) will surely play a relevant role in the preparation of effective educational products that are objective, regularly updated and factually correct (based on existing knowledge), and age as well as schooling-level appropriate. 

For example, one could imagine employing the resources of the apolitical public library system and their librarians to encourage the viewing (perhaps several times) of a thoughtful, previously rigorously tested, non-confrontational, educational activity (or activities) that carefully and non-judgmentally discusses the nature of HPV infection, the highly negative impact on individuals, families, and society of the associated cancers to be prevented (cervix, head & neck, etc.), and the clearly documented safety and efficacy of the existing vaccine products.⁶

Further, and of critical importance, this material should both thoughtful and respectful but must also directly respond to any concerns expressed by both individuals and various groups as to why adolescents should be vaccinated, and particularly at such a young age.

In conclusion, recognizing the enormous impact of social media leading to increasingly limited attention spans, another example of how public library resources may communicate short, relevant and solidly evidence-based information can be found in a provocative paper which highlighted the stunningly negative impact of cigarette smoking on anyone who elects to engage in this addictive habit. The simple, pithy, essential message to be delivered to both young and old is “on average, smokers …. who do not quit lose approximately 20 minutes of life expectancy for each cigarette they smoke”. Think about that fact the next time you light up.

References

1. “Pepper … And Salt”.Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2026; A16
2. Cicero, MT. Epistulae ad Familiares (Letters to Friends), Book 9, Letter 4, sec.1 (9.4.1) to Marcus Terentius Varro (46 BC) [tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928)].
3. Letter to Herbert Putnam; in: Waters, Edward N.:Herbert Putnam: the tallest little man in the world; Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 33:2 (April 1976), p.171.
4. Librarianship Studies & Information Technology. https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2019/02/the-only-thing-that-you-absolutely-have.html.
5. Kevane M, Sundstrom WA. The development of public libraries in the United States, 1870-1930: A quantitative assessment. Information & Culture: A Journal of History 2014; 49(2):117-144.
6. CDC: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine safety and effectiveness data. https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/vaccination-considerations/safety-and-effectiveness-data.html
7. Jackson SE, Jarvis MJ, West R. The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life? Addiction. 2024; 1-3.