Rural One-Room Library

Turning A Page Inside A Rural One-Room Library
Keys To The Whole World: American Public Libraries
NPR: 10.21.2013 by Jennifer Davidson

There's one state highway running through Myrtle, Mo. It's a sleepy town in the Ozarks, population about 300. There's no bank or restaurant here, but enormous oak and persimmon trees loom over a small stone building right next to the road. Half of it is a post office; the other half, a one-room public library.

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The Institute of Museum and Library Services estimates that nearly half of America's public libraries are rural, and many of those are staffed by only one or two people.

"Often, the library is the only place in a small community that people can go to access technology, to fill out job applications, to continue their learning," says Tena Hanson of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries.

She says libraries in remote places are lifelines for rural communities, because the Internet doesn't always reach towns with rugged terrain.  READ MORE !