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”
By Erica Ezeifedi for Book Riot
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.
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