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| Children's Section of Rio Vista Library, Solano County California (c)Lisa R. Pruitt 2024 |
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| Take and Make Kits at the Newton County (AR) Library (c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025 |
I'm also using this post to share some photos of rural libraries that I've taken in the past few years, some from my home county, Newton County, Arkansas, and some from California towns. What I've seen in my hometown library, where I've spent more time recently, is that these institutions provide a wide range of services, from a seed bank to lending telescopes to craft bags for kids. They host legal aid attorneys coming to chat about elder law and other issues residents may need to know about. Sadly, to my mind, they may also mindlessly distribute The Epoch Times and other right-wing propaganda.
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| (c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025 |
The following excerpt from journalist Hayes story features her in conversation with Vickie Pierce, the retired English teacher working part time as the circulation clerk in what is described as one large room:
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| Telescopes on loan at Newton County Library, AR (c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025 |
PIERCE: We're a small-town library, so really small budget. And honestly, I'm not sure how we manage to stay open.
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| Reading room, Coleville Library, Mono County, CA (c)Lisa R. Pruitt 2024 |
HAYES: Part of how they stay open is through grants from the independent federal agency the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Before the pandemic, the federal government covered around 5% of Greenup library's operating costs. Kate McDowell is a professor at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. She says the IMLS is a very small agency...
KATE MCDOWELL: That has impacts on almost every community in the whole of the United States and territories.
HAYES: Public libraries get most of their funding from county and city taxes. IMLS distributes the majority of federal library funds. McDowell says the grants vary year to year and are often small, but they help libraries try new things.
MCDOWELL: What the IMLS funds is not just the subsistence of libraries, although that's there too - it's their future.
Mammoth Lakes Library,
HAYES: IMLS gave out $267 million last year to libraries and museums. That's 3,000th of a percent of federal spending. But the future of that funding is in doubt. In March, almost all of the IMLS staff were put on administrative leave. In an executive order, President Trump claimed the move would reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Greenup isn't expecting any federal money this year, and Pierce says the library is financially cautious.
PIERCE: We squeeze every penny three or four or five times to get the most out of it.
HAYES: And Pierce says the idea of taking more money away from libraries sickens her. The American Library Association says that's been happening nationwide to libraries and museums receiving IMLS grants.
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| Seed saving chart and seed library Newton County (AR) Library (c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025 |
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[A] judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Congress has funded the department through September. For now, Greenup Library says it's still providing the same services, but that could change for it and other rural libraries.
Prior posts about rural libraries are here. I want to specifically highlight this 2013 NPR feature on a rural Missouri library. Here's one from 2008 about a library in a barn in New England. This 2017 post is about Douglas County, Oregon's decision not to keep open a single library. And a dispute about how much to pay the librarian in this Arkansas county was the basis for political ponderings in this lengthy op-ed in the New York Times in 2019.
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| Libraries are important sources of WiFi, as illustrated by this sign at the Newton County (AR) Library (c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025 |
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