Vol. 7 No. 1 (2022): Journal of New Librarianship
Peer Reviewed Articles

Pathways to Wellbeing: Public Library Service in Rural Communities

Margo Gustina
Southern Tier Library System
Eli Guinnee
State Librarian, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
Rick Bonney
Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University
Hope Decker
Wayland Free Library

Published 2022-12-07

Keywords

  • rural librarianship,
  • social wellbeing,
  • public libraries,
  • social infrastructure,
  • community anchor

How to Cite

Gustina, M., Guinnee, E., Bonney, R., & Decker, H. (2022). Pathways to Wellbeing: Public Library Service in Rural Communities. Journal of New Librarianship, 7(1), 159–189. https://doi.org/10.33011/newlibs/11/14

Abstract

To answer the question “If public libraries are a component of social wellbeing in rural communities, how are they successful?” we conducted, transcribed, coded, and analyzed 114 group and individual interviews with 202 people at eight field research sites in isolated rural communities distributed throughout the United States. Motivating this study is a gap in understanding the library service mechanisms involved at the community level which will yield beneficial social wellbeing outcomes. Through iterative phenomenological analysis, we established how rural residents defined social wellbeing for themselves and how they describe the library’s role in that context. We found that rural residents forego access to standard amenities for access to deep social connections, natural resources, and community cultures of freedom and mutual support. We found long term locally made structural, social, and cultural norms, which we call pathways, through which libraries support wellbeing.