This is the transcript from the National Farm Broadcast Service entitled: "Town and school collaborate to give farm community modern library."

W.K. Kellogg Foundation News MIRA: Town and school collaborate to give farm community modern library 4/3/2000

Small rural farm communities are often barely able to afford to keep their libraries open - let alone to make the technological investment needed to electronically connect them with other libraries and information resources.

One answer to this common problem is for town libraries to collaborate with their local schools - combining resources for the betterment of both. That's what the town of Orient, in Southwest Iowa, did. Community leaders, with the help of the Grow Iowa Foundation, brought the school and town library boards together and merged their libraries into one, modern library that serves the whole community - students and adults.

Prior to the merger, the town library sat with outdated books, and not enough money to pay a librarian. It also lacked the certification to draw on county library tax funds. Neither the town nor local school library were electronically catalogued, which meant that students and the public could not order books from other libraries.

With help from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Managing Information with Rural America (MIRA) initiative, the Grow Iowa Foundation provided funding for computers and a cataloguing system for the new library which was located in space provided by the school.

The new library is now a certified public library, connected to other libraries, that also has distance-learning capabilities for the school and public. This new library is also better funded, since it can draw on county support in addition to school funds. The new library is overseen by a joint town/school committee.

Public Resource Technology Center Board President Lois Frederick of Orient, Iowa explains what some of the biggest obstacles where in merging the town and school libraries…tape

Frederick: "The preliminaries of making sure that we were following everything that we needed to, to make it a public library. That probably was the biggest road block for me because we started on ground level and worked up."

Frederick outlines the situation with the old town library that necessitated this action…tape

Frederick: "The old town library had been a voluntary library, and was not a public library. It was just kind of a building where they opened up so people could take the books that were there. The books that were there were mostly books that people had donated, and therefore no new books were purchased. There just was very little organization to it. Two years ago it closed, so there was nothing at Orient at that time ¾ and when we worked on the MIRA committees we decided that opening the library might be a good project. Then we worked to see whether or not it would be possible to include the school with it, and combine the two libraries."

Frederick explains the role the grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation played in this project…tape

Frederick: "If it had not have been for the grant that we got, number one, the idea probably would not have been created. Number two, there would have been no funding for which we could set up a base. And number three, because we have the money, now both the public library books and the school library are completely automated. The school was looking into that, but because of the program costs and costs of labeling all the books, the cost is almost prohibitive for schools to enter into it. Since we did the basic program of that, then they could come in on our program and do the programming. So, now all of the books that we hold within the public library, including the school, is completely on technology."

Frederick explains how the new, joint library is funded…tape

Frederick: "We get some funding from the county taxes. And then the town of Orient, the council, has supported us and we have a commitment from them. So, we're operating on a very low budget. We are still where we need helpers, using voluntary personnel in order to help staff us. But we are keeping it going just because it is a school function also, and they have certainly stepped in that role and helped us a great deal."

With funding from the library being funded by two taxing entities, Frederick explains who oversees the library…tape

Frederick: "Probably the biggest player in overseeing everything is the school librarian. She is very close to being also a certified public librarian. And, she is the basic overseer. If there is something that needs to be done as far as the public library is concerned, that the school isn't involved with I, as the board president, probably oversee the majority of that."

Roberta Hepburn serves as the librarian for the Public Research and Technology Center, and is also the school librarian. She outlines the benefits for electronic cataloguing in their library…tape

Hepburn: "There is much less clerical work with this system. It's easy to generate overdues inventory is much less time consuming. And because there is less clerical work, a professional is freed up to work with adult and student patrons. Also for the library user, automation is a real benefit. It's so simple to walk to the computer and type in author, title or subject, and a list is generated telling the patron where the book's located and whether or not it has been checked out. It's easier, and more information is given, than in a paper catalog system.

Hepburn says the benefits far outweigh the challenges of being both a school and public librarian. She says, however, staffing can sometimes be a challenge…tape

Hepburn: "Because you need longer hours in this situation and so you have to have additional staff and they may not have the same abilities when it comes to the use of libraries. But, I would say that every library would probably have different challenges and some of the same challenges you have whether you are a combined library or just a single facility. So, each situation is entirely different. A few problems that we have had, really have been handled quite easily by a really great library board. They are a working board, not just a decision-making board. And so they help me out a lot, and really eliminate challenges."

Frederick says other communities can learn from their community's ability to work together…tape

Frederick: "Through the school and through our community, I think it has made the two entities closer together. We're working as a team rather as working as separate entities, and I see that as a real plus. The other benefits are that the people in the community particularly since we didn't have a library in Orient before see this as something good that has happened to the community. And, hopefully it has also made the community more aware of technology and more literate as far as computers are concerned."