Rural Public Librarianship - by Jennifer Thiele (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book highlights the challenges that rural libraries experience and offers best practices to contend with them with limited resources.

Book Synopsis

This book highlights the challenges that rural libraries experience and offers best practices to contend with them with limited resources.

Nearly 50% of libraries in the United States are considered rural. These libraries face unique challenges and issues that continue to manifest as they contend with the systematic problem of access to information. These challenges include: Financial barriers such as the drying up of recent federal and local grant funds for both rural municipalities and public libraries specifically; broadband accessibility; Ebook access; mobile hotspot circulation and community access points outside the library; and more. How can librarians address these accessibility issues? This book highlights these challenges and offers best practices to contend with them given the limited resources rural libraries have access to.

About the Author

Jennifer Thiele is an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the School of Information Studies at Louisiana State University. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 2016 with her dissertation focusing on public library internet connectivity in rural areas of the United States, and the funding structures and programs that supported librarians bridging the digital divide. Dr. Thiele's dissertation was recognized by the American Library Association as one of the top Notable Dissertations in 2017, and she has taught classes in rural libraries, public library administration and readers' advisory. She has also taught and developed core coursework for rural public librarian certification programs in the state of Wisconsin. From 2008-2021, Dr. Thiele served as Director of the Marinette County Library System.