title: Readiness and capacity of librarians in public libraries to implement a breast cancer outreach and screening campaign in medically underserved communities.
abstract: Community-based partnerships are an important means of addressing cancer health disparities in medically underserved communities. Public libraries may be ideal partners in this effort. To assess the readiness and capacity of a public library system to implement cancer recruitment and outreach campaigns, 58 librarians in the Queens Borough Public Library System in New York completed self-administered questionnaires before and after a training on breast health, cancer, and screening. Results indicate that they are interested in participating in a cancer outreach campaign and feel it is a critical need in their community. Many librarians lacked the knowledge about cancer and cancer information resources needed to participate optimally. Nevertheless, librarians provide a cultural bridge to medically underserved communities. Partnering with a public library system to improve access to care has great potential, yet a number of challenges need to be overcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. goytiae@mskcc.org
authors.forename: Elliott J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Goytia
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rapkin
authors.forename: Elisa S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Golub
authors.forename: Vivian
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Guzman
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Connor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms; D002648:Child; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D016245:Librarians; D007990:Libraries / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City