Pathways of Belonging: Delight Assessment

Primary author: Margo Gustina

Rural communities often use delight as a way to build strengthen social connection, shared identity, and economic opportunity.

What is in this tool?

The following is designed to help you assess first (a) your community and then (b) your library work toward resident belonging through delight.

A delightful event, such as a unique annual festival can be used as a device to maintain connection with people who moved away for college, work, or other reasons. Conversely, newcomers to rural communities often cite attending a community-wide event as their introduction and first love with their new home. A single delightful event will lead to them coming back again and again.

          Rural librarians intuitively use delight to to pull people into the library and connect them with both other resources of the library and other community members. Understanding and appreciating this deeper connecting role of delight, helps free us to creatively develop spaces and programs that are just plain fun!

LISTEN: “It is an interesting experience I have–my awareness, because of recent politics and stuff of being a Latin American person, is. … it’s the first time that I’ve felt uncomfortable in this country. And I attend this library because it is a delight to come here.” — Margie, interview #4-2-03

Further Resources:

Want to learn more about creating a library space that pulls people in? See “Dare to Dream” and “Library as the Community’s Welcome Center”.

Want to learn more about connecting people with quality of life opportunities? See “Nature: Going Beyond the Walls of the Library” and “Pathways to Knowledge and Delight”.  Â