Hughes & Boss: Rural Libraries and Economic Development

In How Rural Public Libraries Support Local Economic Development in the Mountain Plains, Cynthia Hughes and Stephen Boss (both librarians at the University of Wyoming) detail the positive impact rural and small libraries can make on communities’ economies. This article—published in Public Library Quarterly—seeks to capture a more comprehensive picture of how rural libraries can aid small business owners, while also identifying unique challenges faced by these institutions.  

The authors focus their research on the Mountain Plains Library Association (MPLA) region, which covers twelve states throughout the western United States. MLPA is an association of librarians who promote the development of libraries in the rural west by providing significant educational and networking opportunities.  

The authors sent surveys to MPLA members and conducted a handfull of site visits at specific libraries for observation and interviews. The survey focused mostly on how (or if) libraries served local businesses and found limited business education or business programming efforts at most of the responding libraries. These respondants, however, also revealed common challenges: budget cuts, lack of librarian training on business-related topics, and feelings of being overwhelmed and unprepared. Overall, the survey results identified that many rural libraries have limited staffing, funding, resources, and space – which makes knowing and supporting the needs of their business patrons a struggle.  

On a positive note, the authors also highlight two states—Tennessee and New Mexico—that have successfully used relatively small grants to libraries to support economic development efforts. In both cases, funded libraries took a specific state-designed approach to offer support resources to business patrons and community entrepreneurs.