Rural Library Sustainability Program
Thousands of library staff attended workshops delivered in 42 states as a part of the Rural Library Sustainability Project. If you're a participant wanting to revisit a module of the workshop or a trainer wanting to replicate the workshop, you will find all of the materials here. The Documents tab above will provide you with marketing materials on the workshop, as well as the Rural Library Sustainability Continuum. Many folks have used the Continuum as a stand-alone tool to document progress on sustainability efforts.
Most Recently Added
Opportunity Out of Adversity: Digital Access in Rural and Small Libraries
Publish Date: Webinar / 6 August 2020
If we are intentional, we can use these circumstances to grow our organizations and to address the digital access disparities in small and rural communities. A webinar hosted in collaboration with ARSL.
Small and Rural Librarians: Leading the Way in Online Conferences
Publish Date: News / 9 April 2020
As part of the public health response to the coronavirus, most face-to-face conferences scheduled for upcoming months have been cancelled, with many opting for online conferences. For instance, the Society for Public Health Education’s annual confere...
Small and Rural Libraries in Tourism Economies: Part 2
Publish Date: News / 25 March 2020
In part 2 of the series, Audrey Dingler, from Cape May County Library, and Noah Lenstra, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, explore how libraries assess community needs in relation to outdoor tourism and recreation economies, and ex...
Small and Rural Libraries in Tourism Economies: Part 1
Publish Date: News / 11 March 2020
Audrey Dingler, from Cape May County Library, and Noah Lenstra, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, reflect on preliminary research into how rural counties with outdoor tourism and recreation economies benefit from population sta...
Advocacy 101: When Advocacy Becomes Second Nature
Publish Date: Webinar / 7 November 2019
A webinar hosted in collaboration with ARSL on the basics of library advocacy and how to integrate advocacy into your everyday and into your community relationships.
The Power of Small: How Rural Libraries Help Their Communities Thrive
Publish Date: Webinar / 18 April 2019
Learn how any tiny library can find more ways to support the needs of their community by thinking strategically and creating new connections.
Belgrade Community Library: Small and Unstoppable
Publish Date: News / 14 September 2015
When the Library Journal Best Small Library challenge rolled around, the Belgrade Community Library (BCL) outside of Bozeman, Montana, almost didn’t apply because "we thought we were too small." Their small staff and small budget doesn’t st...
Building Rural Prosperity with the Rural Information Center
Publish Date: News / 29 December 2014
Perhaps especially in rural communities, libraries provide key points of connection with the broader world, serving as windows on faraway places, other cultures, and diverse perspectives. But libraries can also help deepen our ties to the places we l...
Rural Resources and Funding: The Rural Information Center
Publish Date: Webinar / 10 December 2014
This webinar showcases information and resources from the Rural Information Center made available to libraries and other organizations working to maintain the vitality of America's rural communities.
Small Libraries, Big Thinking
Publish Date: News / 17 June 2014
Library Journal's annual Best Small Library in America Award, cosponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was created in 2005 to discover and reward exemplary work by libraries serving populations under 25,000, and to showca...
