As a serious library lover, and someone who knows how much impact libraries can have on their communities, hearing about libraries being forced to shut down is devastating. And, of course, it is so much more devastating for their communities!
Small-town libraries serve residents like never before, but budget cuts could close them
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If you don’t work for a library or you haven’t been inside one in a number of years, forget what you believe libraries mean to small towns in Mississippi.
Yes, you can still check out books.
But 20 years ago, we would have never heard a librarian tell this story.
“I was at the grocery store one day and this man sees me,” says Loraine Joyce Walker, librarian at the Noxubee County Central Library in Macon (population 2,600). “He was with his mother and grandmother. His eyes got big, and he said, ‘Mama! Nanny! This is the lady who helped me get the job.’ All of a sudden, I was enveloped in a double hug.
“Using one of the library’s computers, I had helped him apply for 20 offshore jobs. He was now going to be able to send money back home to help cover some of the expenses of his sister at college. He was also going to send them money to cover food and rent.”
The man didn’t own a computer, didn’t know how to apply for a job online and had no access to the internet.
“We are a poor county,” Walker says, “and most people here can’t afford wifi.”
The local library changed that family’s life.
“It happens all the time at libraries all over the state,” Walker says.
Here is the bad news: Budget cuts threaten the future of libraries statewide, especially in rural areas, where they are needed the most.”
(Read the rest of this article here; and prepare yourself to constantly advocate for the future of libraries everywhere!)