Librarians' and Information Scientists' Roles in Health Information Literacy: A Review of Literature

Abstract

In Nigeria as a society, and to every individual, Health literacy is an important aspect to consider. This is due to the fact that a health  literate person understands his/her health status, take prevention and control measures of various diseases. Health literacy was  commonly conceptualized as a set of knowledge, a set of skills or a hierarchy of functions (functional- interactive- critical). The construct  of health literacy covers three broad elements: (1) knowledge of health, healthcare and health systems; (2) processing and using  information in various formats in relation to health and healthcare; and (3) ability to maintain health through self- management and  working in partnerships with health providers. The paper discusses the roles of librarian in health information literacy for individual to  obtain and translate knowledge and information in order to maintain and improve health in appropriate ways. The researcher reviewed  several literatures and found out that libraries have a big role to play to ensure that community recognize their information needs, search  for relevant information and make use of the information to make informed health decisions. The paper concludes that librarians  are ideally placed to raise awareness of the impact on health information literacy and to work with health professionals to embed the use  of tools and techniques to improve health literacy into their daily practice. The paper recommends that Medical librarian should develop  the public's digital and health literacy skills, and includes it in their services; create health information literacy support programmes for   its publics etc.