New Report From ALA: “Rural Libraries in the United States Recent Strides, Future Possibilities, and Meeting Community Needs”
The following report was published today by ALA’s Office of Information Technology Policy.
Title
Rural Libraries in the United States Recent Strides, Future Possibilities, and Meeting Community Needs
Authors
Brian Real, Ph.D.
Calvert Library
Calvert County, MD
R. Norman Rose
Source
Office of Information Technology Policy (OITP), American Library Association
Highlights/Overview via a District Dispatch Blog Post by Larra Clark:
Authors Brian Real and Norman Rose combine data from the final Digital Inclusion Survey with Public Libraries Survey data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to find:
Sixty percent of rural libraries have a single location as part of their administrative system, hampering economies of scale.
Rural libraries furthest from population centers (“rural remote”) are most likely to be single-outlet entities and lag rural counterparts (“rural distant” and “rural fringe”) in most measures of operational capacity.
Rural library broadband capacity falls short of benchmarks set for U.S. home access, which is 25 Mbps download and 4 Mbps upload speeds. By contrast, rural fringe libraries average 13/8.6 Mbps, rural distant is 7.7/2.2 Mbps and rural remote is 6.7/1 Mbps.
Overall, one in 10 rural libraries report their internet speeds rarely meet patron needs.
Rural libraries are on par with colleagues in larger communities in terms of public wi-fi access and providing patrons’ assistance with basic computer and internet training, but more specialized training and resources can lag.
More than half of all rural libraries offer programs that help local residents apply for jobs and use job opportunity resources (e.g., online job listings, resume software), and rural libraries are comparable to their peers in providing work space for mobile workers.
Significant proportions of all rural libraries (even the most remote) offer programs and services related to employment, entrepreneurship, education, community engagement and health and wellness.
The level of programming and services is particularly noteworthy in light of staffing levels: 4.2 median FTE for rural fringe, 2.0 for rural distant and just 1.3 for rural remote libraries.
Rural libraries were the least likely to report renovations had taken place in the past five years; about 15 percent, compared with a national average of 21 percent.
The Digital Inclusion Survey noted a relationship between facility updates and services and library program offerings.
Finally, the authors consider the roles of state and regional cooperation in adding capacity and resources for rural libraries, looking at examples from Maryland and Iowa.
Direct to Full Text Report (19 pages; PDF)
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Data Files, Jobs, Libraries, News, Public Libraries

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.