West Virginia is in dire need of librarians throughout small, rural communities. Due to a State-wide information deficit, the West Virginia Library Association has called for trained and willing volunteers. As a true federalist and research project management educator for 16 years, identifying my transferable skills into librarianship only heightened in me an entrepreneurial spirit. As a teacher having practiced information brokering in every age bracket and curriculum subject (including electives), with a strong student (customer) service orientation, I elected to answer the call.
There is a severe educational and informational deficit in Appalachia. Over twenty million people live in Appalachia; a cultural region which covers mostly mountainous and often isolated areas and in which all of West Virginia is contained. Thirty percent of adults in Appalachia are considered functionally illiterate. In the central part of the region, only 68% of the children graduate from high school. According to 2008 Census figures, Appalachians living in poverty has increased to an overall total of 13.3 million. In my little town locally, 60% of the adults between the ages of 35 and 40 did not graduate high school. These people travel very long distances to mediocre paying jobs and have a yearly income of around $30,000.00.
In the true tradition of Settlement Schools and the Pack Horse Library Project initiated at the turn of the 20th century to address extreme isolation and educational poverty of Appalachian families, I have personally devised and adapted a concept to help create, secure and promote library sustainability in rural Appalachia. As a home educator and aspiring librarian with a kinship toward rural communities, and an undying affinity to the mountains, I have originated an educational outreach library initiative which I call ‘The Settlement Library Project’ and a circuit rider known as 'Fotched-On' Librarian after the tradition of the Pack Horse Librarians (see Special Libraries: What is 'Fotched-On'? entry).
Through community participation in decision-making, marketing and the endurance of local history and genealogy via local archiving, ‘The Settlement Library Project’ offers rural communities in the Appalachia region – separated from larger metropolitan areas which offer traditional library services – an opportunity to establish non-traditional libraries designed to provide programs, links to services, and educational development while striving toward the retention of the historical quality and personality of the residents and the community.
The philosophy of ‘The Settlement Library Project’ promotes the idea that a library’s business is people and not every community requires a full-service institution. For those communities separated by distance or economic difficulties, a ‘Settlement Library’ secures a sense of community identity, individual intellectual freedom, information access and constitutional representative republic ideals which will help lead area residents into becoming informed and educated citizens.
The objective of ‘The Settlement Library Project’ is to empower and connect local residents through education and information access thereby helping to repel continued brutal land speculation, unequal labor policies, poor state-wide investments, political hierarchies, bypassed communities which are not considered “growth centers,” limited employment opportunities, prejudice and disconnectedness, and illiteracy.
Through customized programs and services, ‘The Settlement Library Project’ addresses the educational and informational deficits and social needs of the community by promoting cooperative partnering between private individuals and public agencies, and securing an emotional link through the preservation of local historical customs and culture.
What I consider as the last puzzle piece in Appalachia, ‘The Settlement Library Project’ promotes the establishment of cultural community information centers in rural mountain communities as a library outreach initiative by utilizing the very present skills and knowledge of local residents. A ‘Settlement Library’ is a trusted neighborhood think-tank, equitable source for civic thinking, and clearinghouse for community-wide resources.
Image: markhancock.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
