Abstract: With the development of society and the change of information environment, the public need to improve their health information literacy in response to major public health emergencies. Public library can be the vanguard and assume a major role in health information literacy education for the whole society. This paper adopts literature survey and network survey to investigate the current situation of health information service in public libraries in China, analyzes the necessity of carrying out health information literacy education for the whole society in public libraries from three aspects—public library’s own conditions, national policies and public needs, and puts forward the innovative path of the health information literacy education, which includes constructing the content system of health information literacy education for the whole society, innovating the form of education, developing an education team, and cooperating with all parties in the society extensively.

Key words: Health information literacy, Information literacy education, Public library