ABSTRACT
This chapter details the design, implementation, and lessons learned from a participatory research project seeking to better understand the role that rural libraries play in supporting social well-being in their communities and to create tools with participant library directors as co-creators. It suggests that new design principles that trust the capability of research subjects as co-creators can overcome a tradition of extractive research practices and better align LIS research with social justice values. The research findings highlighted how rural libraries build shared identity and social connection in their communities, which can play a strong role in promoting social justice in a particular place. This research found that the intimacy of a small rural community commonly means that the library plays a uniquely critical relational role in the social connection of a community. Connection, in turn, positively affects who has access to political voice. Rural community members tend to value self-determination highly, but who gets to determine broad community goals can be narrow. Social justice needs arise when gatekeepers fail to let everyone in, setting their own measures of success, keeping decision-making behind closed doors, and producing outcomes that do not benefit everyone.
