Mental health services in public and academic libraries and barriers and facilitators: A literature review

Libraries can be valuable information and community hubs to address society’s growing mental health (MH) concerns and challenges. A comprehensive review of MH services libraries provide is lacking. We aimed to review MH-related services that public and academic libraries provide to patrons and identify factors that influence their implementation and success. We searched six academic databases and Google Scholar to identify peer-reviewed journal articles and searched Google to identify news articles published since 2010 reporting MH services that public and academic libraries provided to patrons. The searches identified 15 journal articles and 27 news articles. We analyzed these articles using the qualitative content analysis method. We found that libraries offered six categories of services: collection development and reference, space design, activities and materials, instruction, referrals and collaborations, and digital and online resources. Systematic evaluation of the services was rare. The provision and success of the services were influenced by features of the services, the library environment, the social environment, and users. The results indicate that the MH services that libraries provide are lacking. More effort is needed to design, develop, and systematically evaluate them to foster their development and sustainability.