Rural libraries are expanding access by allowing visitors in during unstaffed hours

Wyoming, Minnesota pastor, Ryan Stigile, doesn't have many options when it comes to "third spaces." But that has changed recently, thanks to the local library. The East Central Regional Library’s “extended access” program, which allows access to a library branch when it is unstaffed, allows Stigile to work in the evening.

Programs like the ECRL’s are popping up in rural areas across the nation, reports H. Jiahong Pan for The Daily Yonder. So far this year, the ERCL’s extended access program has been used over 800 times by 55 registered citizens.

 
Here’s how extended access programs work: One must have a library card and be registered for the program to swipe in during unstaffed hours. Some libraries require guests to sign up in person, and some offer online registration. In-person tours are mandated at many libraries to familiarize guests with safety equipment; some have minimum age requirements of 16 or 18.

However, extended access doesn’t guarantee 24-hour access. Several programs end their extension hours at 8 p.m., or are closed on Sundays. Security concerns posed a challenge for ECRL at first, with many questioning what people would do if left unattended. The ECRL installed security cameras and a card-swipe system and has yet to encounter any problems.

The Wyoming branch — one of 12 in the ECRL system — is the only library with extended access. It has cost around $70,000, and an estimated $12,000 will be needed annually to maintain technology. With budget cuts squeezing libraries, many are more focused on their "ability to continue to provide regularly staffed hours across" than expanded access.

Some Republican legislators push for NPR and PBS cuts over alleged bias. Rural stations depend on public funds.

PBS stations in rural areas are more dependent on
tax payer money. (PBS graphic)

During recent hearings with heads of PBS and NPR, Republican legislators zeroed in on alleged reporting bias to justify "dismantling and defunding the nation’s public broadcasting system," reports David Bauder of The Associated Press. "The nation’s public broadcasting system is facing perhaps the biggest threat to its existence since it was established in 1967. . . . The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

While some Republicans have routinely "grumbled that PBS and NPR news programming leans left, their efforts to cut or eliminate funding usually fade because legislators want to protect their local stations — 336 of them for PBS alone, with those in rural areas most heavily dependent on taxpayer money," Bauder explains. The fact that President Donald Trump said he would 'love to' see both services cut off from federal dollars may keep GOP defunding efforts alive.

The hearings allowed "a succession of GOP lawmakers to complain bitterly about alleged bias, particularly from NPR stations, making clear it was not an issue that was going away quietly," Bauder writes. "Democrats characterized the hearing as a distraction from more important issues, like this week’s revelation that a journalist from the Atlantic was included in a text chain of Trump administration officials detailing a U.S. military strike in Yemen."

Broadcasting leaders acknowledged some past errors in judgment. "NPR President Katherine Maher said the radio network was wrong to dismiss what was on Hunter Biden’s laptop as a non-story," Bauder adds. "Although saying she is not responsible for editorial content, Maher detailed efforts by NPR to ensure a variety of political viewpoints are represented."

PBS chief executive Paula Kerger "emphasized the service that PBS provides to local communities, particularly with its educational programming for children, and said she is worried for the future of its smaller stations," Bauder reports. Kerger told the committee, “This is an existential moment for them.”