The Rosetta Stone of Librarianship: the Unconventional Rural or Solo Library

What is a Rosetta Stone?

It is a clue, breakthrough, or discovery that provides crucial knowledge for the solving of a puzzle or problem. This type of rural library is designed to meet the specialized needs of present-day rural life.

The backbone of librarianship can be seen in the small libraries that populate rural/urban America. Our rural or solo libraries may not be well funded, well stocked or glamorous, but they house the foundations of our national life through the contribution and preservation of some of our most beloved ideals: 

• the maintenance of the family as a social institution; 
• the cultivation of independent self-reliance; 
• and neighborliness, or "community". 

Your library in your rural community has a responsibility to your residents in a manner that the metropolitan libraries don't, and cannot emulate: that of appreciating the accumulated knowledge and experience of the past that characterizes your library user. This attitude constitutes the "eclectic" library I am always advocating on this blog. Unlike the metropolitan institution, I am persuaded that the role of the rural or solo librarian is to become a trained and equipped social scientist who enjoys working with people directly, and helps to instigate a link between what is generically defined as human capital and economic well-being.

The rural or solo librarian in an unconventional/eclectic library does his/her best to find ways to satisfy the needs of their community.

The Rosetta Stone of rural librarianship is the connection with the community in order to present programs and services that they will not only attend, but also enjoy and benefit from.

In this way, the eclectic rural library provides clues, breakthroughs, or the discovery of crucial knowledge for the solving of social, economical, national, international, healthcare and employment puzzles or problems.

So how do we make our rural or solo library our library user's Rosetta Stone?

The easy fact is simply through our carefully selected staff, carefully designed and well-thought-out services, and our user populations known here as "communities". Tapping into our human resources and local history can create a better future for our rural or solo libraries.

What I consider as the last puzzle piece in Appalachia, and in all rural communities, is the initiation of  a 'Settlement Library'. It includes the establishment of cultural community information centers in rural 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 -- and . . .

The Rosetta Stone of Librarianship

Click on keywords in the Cloud below to access simple, tried and true suggestions that will transform your rural or solo library into an Eclectic, Unconventional Settlement Library within your community.

Image: Copyright © 2004–2017 Florida Center for Instructional Technology. ClipArt ETC is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse and is produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida.

Free Agent Librarianship: Able to Deliver

Independence - not Institutionalization

Maginot Line refers to an ineffective line of defense or fortification which is heavily relied upon with not a little undue confidence. A Maginot Line fosters a false sense of impregnability and reliance.

The story goes that Andre' Maginot (1877-1932) was a French Minister of War who proposed a line of defense along France's border with Germany. Although it was believed to be impregnable, the barrier proved to be of little use when Germans actually attacked France through Belgium in 1940. Those who adapt and attempt to utilize this line of defense often find themselves prisoners of history: victims of a repeated chosen path of dependency unable to deliver the needed outcome.

So how does Maginot's Line apply to rural libraries today?

Libraries are traditionally institutions. Institutions operate in an environment consisting of other institutions. Every institution is influenced by the broader environment through what is known as "institutional peer pressure." The main goal for institutions is survival and legitimacy. And although institutions clearly have the capacity to grow and adapt, they also possess the habit of being prisoners of their own institutionalized history whether calamitous or otherwise.

When dealing with an institution, history matters. Paths - or lines of defense and fortification - are chosen or designed early on in the existence of that institution. That path inevitably gets followed throughout the institution's development giving it an inherent agenda based on the pattern of development: you know, "That's the way we do things around here."

Truth is, the historical track of a given institution, or even policy's of the institution, will result in almost inevitable consequences and occurrences: an actual self-perpetuating cycle. Because actions of one type beget further actions of the same.

So how are libraries institutionalized?

Through "Vocabulary:" Not affiliating the library as a business in the business of people.
Through "Commitment:" Lacking a commitment to the energy, resources and time required for successful quality results.
Through "Process:" Being impatient with the process and eager for the resolution or "quick fix."
Through "Professionalism:" Relying on traditions, institutional standards and congregational respected bodies of knowledge instead of focusing on customers.

So what's the answer to institutionalized librarianship?

It's a simple and easy win! Be an independent quality service provider with a head for business. There are three paths to success you can painlessly utilize by having a

Positive Focus with a balanced perspective and an optimistic approach; and by

Embracing Change as both inevitable and desirable, and through

Building Vision by extending the librarian's domain, utilizing the customer's point of view, and embracing a broader concept of information services.

Don't let your dependence on institutional librarianship and hierarchical library organizations be your Maginot Line. The move toward independence in the library environment is not unnatural. An institution is a house of books; a Free Agent Librarian is a quality service manager with a community focus leading to customized services which accentuate customer value.

It's about Independence, not Institutionalization.



Is your library technically considered a Rural Library? And what exactly is Free Agent Librarianship?

According to the United States Census Bureau, rural areas comprise open country and settlements with fewer than 2,500 residents. Areas designated as rural can have population densities as high as 999 per square mile or as low as 1 person per square mile. On the other hand, according to the ALA/APA Rural Libraries Survey, rural librarians define rural differently: to some a library is rural if it is isolated; to another, a library is rural if the main patrons are in agriculture or commute long distances to larger metropolitan areas for work; and yet another defines rural as a population of less than 5000 with more deer per square mile than people!

Regardless of how you define your demographic, Free Agent Librarianship can be a reality in your library and in your life. A librarian who is a Free Agent is not subject to external constraints through organizational structures, influential and politically motivated library associations, and is not bound by traditional teachings, hierarchies or stereotypes. Free Agent Librarianship promotes a library professional who is set at liberty to create, organize and advance an eclectic librarianship for the purpose of providing highly customized services and inventive possibilities for community information centers focusing on the community at large.

Free Agent Librarianship is ALL about entrepreneurship and making your library the center of your community. So be one!!

Image: diversityrules.typepad.com/.../01/index.html

Taking a Non-Traditional Route

Following the FirePath

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