Library outreach programs in rural areas - Rural Libraries and Information Services

If we assume a ten year vehicle life, an initial cost of $45,000 and $2,000

per year for maintenance then the mobile facility costs $6,500 per year

or about fourteen cents per circulation. No reliable estimate of fuel

costs is available but if one assumes $50 per week that would add $2,500

to the annual costs and raise the cost per circulation to twenty cents.

(p. 46)

This, of course, does not mean that there are not significant outreach services in rural communities. Many library systems have a county wide or larger region of responsibility, and some such systems have both significant urban and rural localities within their service areas. If the service area is large enough and the population willing and able to provide tax revenues for the service, rural outreach is feasible and can be very effective. In fact, despite the economics, bookmobiles and deposit collections are to be found in the smallest service areas.

What does an underfunded library serving a rural population do when faced with the need, or perhaps the mandate, to provide more than traditional ready reference, recreational, and self-help materials? It copes. For instance, let us consider the rural library faced with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. All libraries are required by law to provide services to the disabled and to have accessible facilities. While the situation has not been broadly studied, Deason et al. (1992) conclude that rural libraries are neither accessible nor do they have materials for use by disabled patrons.

In his study of eighteen facilities in three rural public library systems in Louisiana, Bodin (1994) found that all but one facility had major structural problems and, thus, could only achieve compliance with considerable expenditure; all facilities exhibited less serious and costly problems. However, these libraries did have large-print materials and closed and open captioned videos, and access to the State Library of Louisiana's extensive collections of specialized materials. Most important, they had a positive attitude of service to the disabled and were willing to go to considerable lengths to get information and materials to those who found traditional access a problem. This often meant telephone consultation and that most basic of outreach service, personal delivery of materials by library personnel.

It is certainly technically possible to provide rural communities with wide access to information sources by electronic means. This involves equipment costs and communication charges that will be beyond the means of many of the rural unserved. However, the farmer or the rural business person who has a personal computer and modem for other purposes has access to a growing number of library collections and services. The small rural public library also can have this access if it can afford such equipment and telephone charges.

The Association of Research Libraries (1993) surveyed its membership concerning services to remote access patrons (RAPS). Of the 108 libraries surveyed, 75 responded and, of these, 72 indicated that some form of remote access to their collections or services was currently available. Most allow access to their OPACs without password or charge, and a large number provide remote access to their CD-ROM workstations without passwords. This survey indicates that RAPS are not only students, faculty, and staff located away from the campus, but that many are not affiliated with the university in which the library operates. Distance learners and the handicapped are taking advantage of these services, which include not only electronic access but circulation, interlibrary loan, reference service, and delivery by electronic means, by commercial courier, by their own library delivery system, and by the post office.