Understanding the Social Wellbeing Impacts of the Nation's Libraries and Museums

Local libraries and museums are actively involved in encouraging social connections and institutional connections that catalyze creativity, ingenuity, and empathy within their communities in ways that promote personal and social well-being. These unique characteristics of libraries and museums make them critical institutions for advancing efforts to promote inclusion and equity for historically underrepresented populations, especially with citizens of color.

Social good enables the sector to think about its relationship with communities in a way that focuses on the direct and indirect ways in which libraries and museums create well-being and support the institutional structures that employ the partnerships they develop and the positions they hold.

In 2018, building on the findings of Strengthening Networks, Sparking Change, IMLS re-engaged the Reinvestment Fund, in partnership with the Social Impact of the Arts (SI) Project at the University of Pennsylvania Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP) and HR&A Advisors, to conduct a national study of how libraries and museums across the country influence the social well-being of their communities.

From 2018 to 2020, the Reinvestment Fund led data collection and analyses that employed a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and a geographic perspective based on all regions of the national U.S. The study team first created indices to estimate the presence and use of libraries and museums for each area of the country. At the same time, SIAP developed estimates of 10 dimensions of social well-being for each region.
The 10 dimensions of social well-being included measures to estimate economic well-being, ethnic and economic diversity, housing opportunities, institutional connectedness, cultural assets, school effectiveness, health access, personal health, and personal safety.

Quantitative analyses employed multivariate models to identify associations between the presence and use of libraries and museums and multiple dimensions of social well-being when accounting for economic status and racial/ethnic composition. The team then selected 24 public libraries and museums across the country to visit in depth to understand how libraries and museums support their use.