[PL-Directors] FW: New ALA Report on Rural Public Libraries

[Tamara Ottum]

FYI.
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From: ARSL_MEMBERSHIPOn Behalf OfBrian Real
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2017 5:16:38 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
To: arsl_membership at cvl-lists.org<mailto:arsl_membership at cvl-lists.org>
Subject: [ARSL_MEMBERSHIP] New ALA Report on Rural Public Libraries

Hello everyone,



ALA just released a new report I co-wrote entitled Rural Libraries in the United States: Recent Strides, Future Possibilities, and Meeting Community Needs. A blog post from the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) is at this link<http://www.districtdispatch.org/2017/07/new-report-explores-rural-library-technology-access/>, and the report itself can be found at this link<http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/pdfs/Rural%20paper%2007-31-2017.pdf>.



Some key points are that libraries tend to have less resources when they are further from urban centers, technological infrastructure has improved greatly for rural libraries but still needs to be an area of focus, and there needs to be more advocacy for better state and regional support systems. I know that most of us in the field already intuitively know some of the basic ideas behind much of what the report has to say, but I hope that having precise numbers and ideas in writing will be useful for you in advocating for your libraries' needs.



Best,



Brian Real

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Public Services Librarian

Calvert Library, Fairview Branch

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PhD, Information Studies

University of Maryland iSchool
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