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Innovative Study by UPenn and NYPL Finds That Public Libraries Positively Impact Community Health and Well-Being

"Our research found that patrons experience refuge, joy, connection, purpose, and expansion through their library use"

Erica Ezeifedi Dec 11, 2024

Erica Ezeifedi

Associate Editor

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack. Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.

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The results of a groundbreaking partnership between the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project within The University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center and the New York Public Library (NYPL) has resulted in a similarly important and rare case study that directly shows the impact of public libraries on individual and community well-being.

The white paper, titled “Libraries & Well-Being: A Case Study from The New York Public Library,” got its data from surveys distributed to New York Public Library users, and uses positive psychology frameworks in its analysis. For the unfamiliar, positive psychology is a field that studies well-being, and the data from this study was analyzed using positive psychology’s PERMA (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment) model.

Some of the highlights found were:

92% of respondents reported feeling somewhat to very “calm / peaceful” after visiting the Library;
74% of respondents reported that their library use positively affects how equipped they feel to cope with the world;
90% of respondents reported that their Library use positively affects how much they love to learn new things; and
88% of respondents reported that their Library use has supported their personal growth.

Additionally, these positive impacts on society are even higher for lower-income communities and patrons who physically go into the library compared to those who only use the library’s digital services. A whopping 82% of people who used the library’s physical space and 79% of people who physically attended programs reported more optimism regarding the future, compared to only 58% of digital-only users.

This is evidence of not only the importance of third spaces, but also the importance of public libraries as third spaces.

a medium light-skinned young woman sits cross-legged on library floor while reading a book — Image courtesy of Pexels

“This work is descriptive and correlational—not causal —in nature; however, we believe these results provide meaningful evidence of the Library’s role in supporting individuals’ flourishing. These findings are a testament to public libraries’ contributions to the health of their communities. As such, they point to the possible benefits of public libraries playing a more active and prominent role in discussions about the health and well-being of communities across the country.” — The study’s publishers

And, while the surveys collected and analyzed in the study were specific to the New York Public Library, researchers believe they can be extended to other libraries—be they in rural, urban, or suburban areas—across the country.

Daphna Blatt, the NYPL’s Senior Director of Strategy & Public Impact and one of the people involved in the study, underscored the significance of confirming through scientific method what many library lovers have known for awhile, saying, “Libraries & Well-Being is an innovative study in how it applies positive psychology frameworks to the library world, to show for the first time that library usage positively contributes to externally validated measures of well-being. Our research found that patrons experience refuge, joy, connection, purpose, and expansion through their library use.”

In addition to Daphna Blatt, the study involved the NYPL’s Dr. E.K. Maloney (Patron Impact and Satisfaction Researcher), as well as Dr. James O. Pawelski (Professor of Practice and Founding Director of the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project) and Dr. Katherine N. Cotter (Associate Director of Research at the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project) from the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center.

To read more about the study, visit NYPL.org. You can also download the case study here.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.