Rural Libraries as Lifelines: Books, Broadband, and Other Basics

For many, it’s hard to imagine living in a home without reliable internet, running water, or a laundromat within a few minutes’ drive. Yet for families in rural America, this can be a stark and long-standing reality.

Now, imagine those same families visiting their nearest library to charge cell phones and wash a few loads of laundry. While their fresh clothes take a tumble in the dryer, they might take care of some business online: applying for jobs, catching up on the news, or paying bills. And yes, of course, they might check out reading materials or useful equipment they can utilize once they’ve headed home. Because when your community lacks basic infrastructure, a library can’t be “just a library” as we’ve understood it for generations. It must be more.

Introducing the New Mexico Rural Library Initiative

“New Mexico’s rural libraries are state treasures,” asserts the online home of the New Mexico Rural Library Initiative (NMRLI). Inspired by the Rio Arriba Independent Libraries (RAIL), a coalition of five libraries that seek combined funding, share program resources, and provide services one might not expect in a library (for example, those of a notary public), NMRLI’s advocacy work includes collecting and publishing stories that elevate the remarkable, innovative ways libraries are “showing up” for their communities. And increasingly, these stories demonstrate essential work being done in often-overlooked places.

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Real Impact: Vallecitos Community Center and Library

The small, unincorporated community of Vallecitos, nestled in juniper-covered hills with a seemingly endless horizon, is located about sixty miles north of Santa Fe. The scenery is breathtaking, but like many rural areas, Vallecitos faces real challenges accessing broadband internet or even basic appliances to connect to its unreliable water supply. And when the Vallecitos Community Center and Library began forming more than ten years ago in a dilapidated mercantile building from the late 1800s, it was no exception.

But visionaries and their supporters provided volunteer labor to shore up the structure, connect it to a water supply, and install electricity. Eventually, the center boasted reliable wifi, as well as computers and other devices that helped forge connections between Vallecitos and the outside world.

Then came COVID-19. When schools pivoted to online instruction, many local students lacked the resources to engage in distance learning, so the Vallecitos Community Center and Library became a makeshift classroom. Community members visited to conduct telehealth appointments with physicians and other professionals. When organizations and companies around the world were shuttering their doors, the center did the opposite — it became the community’s digital hub, more essential than ever at a time when many people elsewhere struggled with isolation. The connection it provided, both within and outside its community, became more essential than ever.

Today, the center’s reputation as a technological resource remains. But beyond crisis communications and emergency connections, people who enter Vallecitos Community Center and Library might find someone using the washer and dryer — because every household deserves to do laundry with dignity. They might find a family using the kitchen to prepare food (even an entire meal), or a group of neighbors gathered in the meeting space for a local event. And while they’re there, they might even check out a set of fishing poles, because the library has those too.

Fishing poles, a landline phone for local calls, and impromptu porch concerts by local musicians aren’t “extras.” They are meaningful responses to practical, emotional, and social needs — and they reflect a library staff and volunteer base that is paying close attention to their neighbors.

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Vallecitos Is Not an Outlier

At first, the Vallecitos Community Center and Library might seem like a heartwarming exception; a unique gem in a singular community. But the truth is that its work represents a “newer kind” of library work, urgently needed in New Mexico and equally important in remote areas throughout the US.

Rural libraries establish and maintain social safety nets, provide reliable digital connections, and create and deliver programming to meet the unique needs of their patrons — often with a budget that would confound their urban library counterparts. The work of rural libraries is extraordinary. Their financial resources are not.

Libraries Evolve, and That Matters

The story of the Vallecitos Community Center and Library is one of compassion, community, and collaboration in service of rural populations. And it is a story also being written every day, with unique and productive outcomes, in communities across this country. NMRLI exists to share these stories — and more importantly, to make sure the libraries living them have the support they need to keep going.

The advocacy work of NMRLI is rooted in a deep respect for what these libraries must do to remain viable, so they can continue to serve their patrons in ways that nurture their curiosity, help them forge relationships, and conduct themselves with a greater sense of dignity.

Stay Informed; Spread the Word

The best way to support rural libraries is to know them. Subscribe to the NMRLI newsletter today, and use your knowledge to help people everywhere (especially those who influence funding priorities) understand the impact of these vital institutions.