Rural libraries have become far more than repositories for books on loan.
These days, rural libraries offer everything from a place to print your own iron-on T-shirt transfers, a room for telehealth appointments or a laptop for Zoom meetings or job interviews.
“Our libraries have turned into the social hub of our communities, at the heart of every community throughout Michigan,” says Deborah E. Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association.
Of the about 400 library systems in Michigan, many are small and rural. Rural libraries bring the world to their small, sometimes remote communities and catering to those community needs has spurred unique programming.
At the Otsego District Public Library, for example, patrons can check out a device that reads aloud lines of text on labels or books, or select a portable CD player to play audio books in cars that have no CD players. Parents and grandparents can borrow totes of activity kits that help youngsters conduct science experiments, learn their colors and numbers, or even master tying their own shoelaces.
In neighboring Plainwell, the Ransom District Library’s design room offers a 3-D printer, media conversion equipment for turning old home movies or videos into computer files, a button maker and more.
In Saginaw County’s Bridgeport Public Library, a Notary Public’s services are available for $1 per signature. The teen programming at Mecosta County’s Barryton Public Library has included Jeopardy tournaments and video game festivals. The Carson City Public Library offers free on-site access to Ancestry.com, and iIn Elk Rapids, the library hosts a Halloween costume swap.
Presque Isle District Library’s Rogers City branch has a perpetual book sale by free will donation, a prom dress and accessory closet, also by donation, and displays of live tortoises and a tarantula.
“The nearest pet store is in Alpena, and a zoo is even farther away,” says Amber Alexander, the library director. “So this just provides a little bit of animal culture for people.”
What’s even more surprising than tortoises at the library?
Presque Isle has acquired the town’s vintage movie theater as an additional library branch and community venue. Its mission? To bring culture to the county, which makes the theater such a good fit for the library, Alexander says.
Providing a diversity of services locally “is a big deal,” says Otsego District Public Library Director Andrea Estelle. “I think people really enjoy having these options here. We don’t have as big a library of ‘things,’ per se, as some other libraries do. But I think it’s wonderful that libraries are able to offer those things we do.”
The back story
Since the pandemic, the demand for local services and supplies has grown among libraries, says the Michigan Library Association’s Mikula.
“Our rural and small libraries are picking up a lot of services that they probably didn’t do 10 or 15 years ago, because they’re not available anywhere else and the community has definitely asked them to help, Mikala says.
An example: Connecting people to the unemployment agency.
“Some people don’t know how to do that, or they might not have internet at home,” she says, “ (but they) have to do everything by online forms these days.”
Alexander has seen that in her small community as well.
“You know, it’s not just about books anymore. I mean, yes, that is our number one thing, books, materials, DVDs, audio books. But now we’re a place of things, of tools, dresses, bread makers, rock tumblers, snow shoes, fishing gear.
“Those are needs that we can try to meet,” she adds. “We’re here to provide educational, entertainment and cultural activities.”
Challenges
In meeting those needs, Mikula says, rural libraries face three major challenges.
“One is obviously their geography. They’re a little bit more isolated,” she says.
The second is staffing. Small libraries may only have one or two staff members and directors in the smallest libraries are not required to hold master’s degrees.
“That puts a little bit of a little bit more of a challenge of, you know, learning the ropes while you’re on the job,” she says. “In the rural and small libraries, you have to be the jack of all trades. The people working there have to know a little bit about everything.”
A third challenge, providing those libraries with the levels of support they need.
This year, the annual Michigan Library Association hosted a pre conference session at geared specifically to frontline library staff from Michigan’s small and rural libraries.
It was filled.
Going forward
Mikula says the hope is for the return of a conference for small rural libraries that was hosted every two years through the Library of Michigan. That conference has not yet resumed since the pandemic. Until it does, the association hopes to continue with some level of programming “to make sure that the small and rural libraries are not being left behind,” she says.
“We had wonderful sponsorship this year through the Library of Michigan and through our Library Cooperatives of Michigan,” she says. “If we can secure that kind of funding in the future, we will continue.”
And as prices on other things go up, Joe Gross, director of the Ransom District Library, says one of his library’s main goals is to continue to provide its free services— “the same kind of awesome innovations that you can find in libraries in bigger cities.
“We have long prided ourselves on figuring out how to scale for our budget and size but still provide things like that,” Gross says.
Rosemary Parker has worked as a writer and editor for more than 40 years. She is a regular contributor to Rural Innovation Exchange and other Issue Media Group publications.
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