Abstract:

[Purpose/Significance] With the growing demand for public health literacy and the accelerating digital transformation of libraries, medical science popularization services in libraries are expected not only to disseminate information but also to promote learning, skill acquisition, and behavioral change. However, existing services still rely heavily on text-based explanation, one-way communication, and short-term activity organization, which makes it difficult for users to translate received information into practical health knowledge and sustained health action. From this perspective, the core problem is not simply a lack of content or channels, but the weak connection between medical knowledge, bodily experience, everyday situations, and long-term social support. Drawing on embodied cognition theory, this study introduces the metaverse as a possible service environment for reconstructing library-based medical science popularization. The main innovation of this study lies in shifting the analytical focus from media form to cognitive mechanism, and in proposing a framework that connects scenario construction, multisensory interaction, collaborative participation, and service evaluation. This framework is expected to enrich the theoretical discussion of library health science communication and provide an operable path for the upgrading of medical-themed science popularization services. [Method/Process] This study adopts a qualitative and conceptual research design that combines literature review, theoretical analysis, and case-based interpretation. First, previous studies on library health information services, medical science communication, user adaptation, digital health literacy, and immersive technologies were reviewed in order to identify the major problems of current medical science popularization services in libraries. Second, embodied cognition was used as the core theoretical lens to extract three key dimensions, namely hybrid physical-virtual space, multisensory interaction, and collaborative community network. Based on these dimensions, the study constructs a metaverse-based service framework and explains how medical knowledge can shift from abstract presentation to contextualized understanding, embodied rehearsal, and behavioral reinforcement. Third, an immersive interactive exhibition on myopia prevention was selected as an illustrative case. The case is not used as strict empirical verification, but as a representative scenario through which the proposed framework can be mapped onto concrete design elements, including space organization, positional interaction, dynamic rendering, experience guidance, and the possibility of extension toward routine library services. This method is appropriate because the research topic is still in an exploratory stage, real-world library cases remain scattered, and conceptual clarification is necessary before controlled empirical testing and large-scale implementation can be meaningfully developed. [Results/Conclusions] The study identified three closely related bottlenecks that current library-based medical science popularization services face. First, knowledge is often detached from real-life situations. This means that users may understand medical terms superficially but still fail to apply them to concrete health decisions. Second, interaction is often limited to reading, listening, or watching, while repeated practice, correction, and embodied rehearsal are insufficient, making it difficult to internalize operational knowledge. Third, many existing services remain event-oriented and discontinuous, lacking stable support structures that connect librarians, medical professionals, users, families, schools, and communities. In response, this study proposes a metaverse construction scheme centered on three modules. The first is hybrid physical-virtual space, which organizes high-frequency health issues into explorable scenarios and links physical library space with digital simulation environments. The second is a multisensory interaction system that transforms medical concepts into visible, audible, touch-responsive, and action-related experiences, thereby strengthening comprehension through perception-action coupling. The third is a collaborative community network that extends science popularization beyond one-time events by incorporating expert consultation, peer support, family co-learning, and community participation. These three modules are integrated through a closed-loop operational logic of immersion, interaction, feedback, and adjustment. On this basis, the study further proposes implementation strategies concerning user segmentation, multimodal resource integration, platform construction, and a multidimensional evaluation mechanism covering participation, knowledge acquisition, behavioral conversion, and experience-based trust.

Key words: embodied cognition, medical science popularization service, health science popularization, metauniverse, scene construction