“Public libraries—those enduring and adaptive positive institutions—provide us with information, inspiration, and connection for staying resilient in adversity and for imagining and creating more fulfilling lives and thriving communities. This report helps us see and relate to libraries as important resources for, and centers of, flourishing.”

—Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman
Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and Founding Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania

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This report sets out to establish a relationship between public libraries and the well-being of library patrons. By aligning with positive psychology and positive humanities research, and drawing connections to prior research on public libraries’ impact on community building, social and cultural capital, and civic engagement, we construct a relationship between library use and individual well-being.

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Summary & Key Takeaways

Findings from a 2023 survey of NYPL patrons show that the vast majority of responding patrons report that the Library positively contributes to their well-being. Our analysis of survey results, informed by the PERMA (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment) model of well-being from positive psychology, indicates that this impact occurs across three stages of flourishing, comprising twenty factors of benefit (in bold below). Further analysis demonstrates impact based on socioeconomic status and patterns of library use. While this report directly draws upon the experiences of NYPL patrons, it presents a theoretical model of how and in which ways libraries impact well-being—which is likely relevant to libraries across the nation.

  • 1. Libraries create a foundation for well-being.

    Library spaces and resources provide the preconditions necessary for flourishing to occur. NYPL patrons report that Library spaces, services, and materials provide them with a sense of stability, safety, refuge, and peace, and allow them to escape and focus.

    Icon of a heart floating above two hands.

  • 2. Libraries foster the core elements of well-being.

    These preconditions activate the elements of positive psychology’s PERMA framework of well-being, which include: comfort, joy, discovery, inspiration, enrichment, connection, care, support, knowledge, reflection, purpose, and productivity.

    Icon of a lightbulb in white on a teal background.

  • 3. Libraries promote personal development beyond well-being.

    These preconditions and components of well-being combine to produce the fruits of flourishing: NYPL patrons report that their library usage supports their growth and expansion.

    Icon of a growing plant in white on a teal background.

  • 4. The Library’s positive impact on well-being is highest for patrons living in lower-income communities.

    While surveyed patrons across all demographic segments self-reported Library impact on their well-being, the degree of impact was inversely related to neighborhood income levels.

    Map icon in white on a teal background.

  • 5. This positive contribution to well-being is also higher for patrons with more physical and time-intensive library use.

    While surveyed patrons across all usage types self-reported library impact on their well-being, patrons who spent time in NYPL’s spaces and attended programs reported consistently higher impact than e-only users.

    Person reading a book icon in white on a teal background.

  • 6. These findings demonstrate that public libraries support the flourishing of their patrons—and thereby help strengthen their communities.

    This evidence argues for public libraries, like NYPL, to be on the map, and at the table, for community discussions about individual and collective well-being.

    Group of people icon in white on a teal background.

“The Library offers us hope that we can do something, that we can make a change, that we can advance.”

—NYPL Patron, Bronx Library Center

The Humanities and Human Flourishing Project

Center for Positive Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

The Humanities and Human Flourishing Project seeks to understand, assess, and advance the effects of arts and humanities engagement on the flourishing of individuals and communities. It is situated within the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, whose mission is to promote research, training, education, and the dissemination of positive psychology.

Learn more about the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project and the Positive Psychology Center.

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