Are libraries the key to living your best life?

The new year presents a moment for reinvention, a renewed effort to be our best selves. Resolutions to eliminate sweets, adopt a new fitness program, or spend more time with family and friends abound. But could it be that one of the best, healthiest things we can do for ourselves is to visit our local library? New research from New York Public Library (NYPL) says that could be true.

In a recently published report, Libraries & Well-Being, NYPL and a team from the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center explored the ways that public libraries positively impact individual well-being and collective flourishing. Well-being is a broad concept that includes physical and mental health, but also encompasses factors such as satisfaction, social connection, and overall quality of life. In other words, well-being and flourishing are about thriving—not merely surviving.

For NYPL, understanding the ways in which library use positively impacts their patrons’ lives is part of a years-long effort to uncover what makes library “magic,” says Daphna Blatt, senior director of strategy and public impact. “We are huge believers in the unique benefits that libraries bring to their communities, and we were curious to see if our patrons would relate their library usage to externally validated measures of well-being.”

What they learned is that patrons overwhelmingly report the library having a positive effect on their lives. Respondents to a 2023 survey described the library as a stable, reliable presence and a place where they felt safe—essential conditions for experiencing well-being. Library users reported improvement in their professional, academic, and personal lives across all five dimensions of well-being—Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment.

Approximately 75 percent of patrons said the library had an impact on how positively they feel about themselves and how equipped they feel to cope with the world. These markers of positive emotion include happiness, joy, and optimism—all grounded in their library experience.

The strongest relationship between the library and factors contributing to well-being was around feelings of engagement. Ninety percent of respondents indicated that their library use increased how much they love to learn new things.

The report also demonstrates that patrons view using the library not only as beneficial in the moment—for instance, feeling joy singing with a child during a story time or contentment reading a borrowed ebook—but they describe a cumulative effect that leads to lasting personal change. One patron shared that the library “helps me see the world through other people’s eyes” and another called the library “essential to my learning and development.”

The idea that libraries foster well-being is hardly news to anyone who works in one. We see it when visitors accomplish an important task, like submitting a job application on a library computer, or discover something new in a program, or sit back to read a book in their favorite series. But the picture emerging from this research helps quantify the anecdotal, affirming the library’s position as an essential asset for a thriving community.

Interestingly, the “dose” seems to matter when it comes to perceived impact on well-being. Patrons who spend more time physically at the library report the highest levels of positive impact; digital content borrowers who do not visit libraries report lower effects. Might this be a risk for libraries that prioritize a growing digital user population—or does it create an opportunity to focus attention on building relationships with those users?

The research also finds that patrons living in lower-income zip codes report the highest levels of positive library impact across all measures of well-being. It’s another piece of evidence that libraries are one of the most effective community resources for supporting vulnerable populations.

What excites me about this research is the model it creates for assessing library impact at the national level. It tells a story that demonstrates the library’s value in health, safety, and education in new ways. At the very least, it offers a clear answer to anyone wondering what they can do to improve their life: go to the library.