Hutchins Library News Blog

A Summer URCPP Project Documenting the Occupational Folklife of Rural Librarians in Kentucky

Today we are featuring a guest post. This is a blog post written by College Folklorist Emily Hilliard's summer URCPP student Sree P.S. reflecting on a project documenting the occupational folklife of rural librarians in Kentucky.

A Summer URCPP Project Documenting the Occupational Folklife of Rural Librarians in Kentucky

by Sreekuttan Palakkadan Subash

Imagine a light-filled space, welcome to all, where anyone can select reading material, movies, games, equipment, and even fishing poles, create figurines on a 3-D printer, host a meeting, or attend a craft demonstration—all for free. Where is this magical space? Why, it’s your local public library! Public libraries are some of the only spaces in the country where people can walk in and access information and cultural programming without being charged. They are spaces where information and knowledge are preserved and circulated for anyone to access, and more recently have evolved into social service hubs equipped with resources that further the sense of civic unity and bolster cultural engagement. Recently, though, public libraries have faced new challenges. In 2023, 4,240 unique book titles were targeted for censorship nationally, and libraries faced 1,247 demands to censor books, materials, and resources[1]. In Kentucky, there were around 70 attempts to ban books in the same year, up from 22 in 2022[2]. According to The Kentucky Lantern, most books people attempted to censor in Kentucky, as in the rest of the United States, had content related to LGBTQ+ populations[3]. In 2022, Kentucky also passed Senate Bill 167, which expanded the role that elected officials play in appointing Board members increasing the possibility that library trustees could have political motives.

In a state where over 44% of the population lives in rural regions, almost all of Kentucky’s 120 counties boast a county library. Rural libraries face distinct challenges compared to urban ones, and they have different standards for measuring success and serving their patrons. They also often have less funding than urban libraries and serve less affluent populations. But they still serve a large and unique population across the state. As the national conversation around freedom of expression evolves, we became curious about the role of rural public libraries and librarians in Kentucky and the relevance of their work to their communities. How has the work of rural librarians changed and adapted to meet the needs of their communities? What specific challenges do they face?

To answer these questions, my supervisor, Emily Hilliard, the Folklorist at Berea College, KY, and I spent the summer of 2024 interviewing librarians across rural Kentucky. We interviewed 15 librarians across the state, from a bookmobile librarian in Gerrard County to the director of a flood-hit library in Letcher County. We used methods of collaborative ethnography to conduct interviews and document worker narratives. Collaborative ethnographic principles require an explicit emphasis on collaboration, especially in the writing process[4]. We did not study the librarians as subjects like other social sciences might, but instead as equals and experts in their own experience. We conducted the interviews in a way that allowed participants to have a great degree of control in directing the conversation; they were not required to answer any questions they were uncomfortable with and had the opportunity to strike any portions from the record. We also sent them a direct transcription for them to review. As an occupational folklore project, we asked questions about the aspects of librarians’ work that only they would know. This included discussing duties they may do beyond their job description or beyond common conceptions of what it means to be a librarian.

A rack of fishing poles in the Library of Things in Jackson County Public Library, McKee, Kentucky. Photo Credit: Emily Hilliard.

After conducting, transcribing, and reviewing the 19 interviews, we noticed that the rural libraries we visited act not just as a resource for books and media but as community spaces. Grace Raglin, the head librarian at Blackey Public Library in Letcher County, was shown the importance of the library to the community when the lower floor of the library building was completely damaged in the 2022 floods. Faced with the library’s loss, the community banded together to help save it, volunteered to clean the sludge left behind by the water, donated books, and raised funds to rebuild their collections. “We had people [who] just showed up and would say, ‘Can we help you shovel mud?’” Raglin said. The Blackey Library, one of the few gathering spaces in the small rural community, remains open even though the lower floor is currently not in service. “A lot of the people that come to our library probably drive from hollows and other more rural parts of the county, sometimes 20-25 miles to get to the library, and that’s just to get to Blackey. They would have to drive more to get into the main library. So, with a little persuasion, we’re able to stay there, and we offer faxing and copying and computers,” Raglin said. The Blackey Public Library provides services in a place where residents have limited access to the internet and may need assistance using computer technology.

Grace Raglin, Head of Blackey Publis Library, Blackey, Kentucky. Photo Credit: Emily Hilliard.

The flood-hit Blackey Public Library, Blackey Kentucky. Photo Credit: Emily Hilliard.

Librarians spoke about working to make their spaces welcoming and hospitable. Many of the librarians we interviewed said their most important task is to put smiles on people’s faces and make them feel seen regardless of socio-economic status. The Marion County Public Library in Lebanon, Kentucky, houses “Giving Space,” stocked with food, a microwave, clothing, and hygiene products for unhoused people to access. The libraries we visited hosted diverse programming, including foam parties for children, author readings, and various workshops open to everyone. “[The library is] a place that everybody has ownership in, which is so rare now. It is a place where anybody can come and do a program, come and ask for help, come and hang out. This past week has been brutally hot. Come in where it’s cool and just hang out for a while,” said Jeanna Cornett, director of the Bell County Public Library District. “It is important to the community because it’s one of the few places that everybody in the community is welcome. Everybody in the community is not just welcome; they’re invited.” Cornett also said that more people come in through the doors asking for services like accessing computers or using restrooms than “registered patrons” who check out books. She thinks all those services are equally important and hopes more people in the community will realize what the library can do for them.

Jeanna Cornett, Director of Bell County Public Library, Middlesboro, Kentucky. Photo Credit: Emily Hilliard.

Most libraries we visited have robust outreach initiatives, many of which are through partnerships with the local public school system. The librarians seek to inculcate a love of reading in children. They set up gaming rooms in the libraries to create a safe space for teens, who, according to several librarians we spoke with, are the hardest demographic to reach. Some libraries also offer programs for elderly living facilities and local and state prisons. The director of the Jackson County Public Library in McKee, Kentucky, Ashley Wagers (a Berea College graduate), conducts a program called “Unlock a Book” in partnership with the adult education center in town for the incarcerated population in the local jail. “I go in with children’s books, and they choose a book. They read it. I record them reading the book, and I send the recording and the book home to the child that they choose. It can be their daughter, their son, their niece, their nephew, or their best friend’s daughter. We mail the book and the recording to the child. While their loved one is incarcerated, they get that piece of them,” Wagers said. It is a program she borrowed from the Indiana Public Library System, where it is conducted statewide. As far as Wagers knows, hers is the only library in the state with such a program.

Ashley Wagers, Director of Jackson County Public Library, McKee, KY. Photo Credit: Emily Hilliard.

Jackson County Public Library, McKee, Kentucky. Photo Credit: Emily Hilliard.

The greatest challenge the libraries we visited faced was funding. Many directors we spoke to said there is insufficient funding to expand or retain materials and they aren’t able to pay their staff as much as they deserve. Most libraries in the state are tax-funded, and their resources vary depending on the wealth of the taxing district. The Marion County Public Library will encounter a 20% reduction in its budget when a tax cut on the bourbon distilleries in the county comes into effect in 2025. The librarians there are strategizing to meet the deficit by reaching out to the various decision-makers in the county and bringing awareness about all the services they offer.

However, when it comes to people’s right to read, we saw support across political lines to protect the right to information and ward off censorship. While there has statistically been an increase in book challenges in Kentucky, most of the libraries participating in our project have not encountered serious book challenges. When there were challenges, the reaction of the library boards and the local politicians supported the freedom of information. After a challenge to 102 books in Paris-Bourbon County Public Library, it declared itself  a “First Amendment Library,” the only one in the state with this designation to date. “At the July board meeting [in 2023], we had over 100 people in the community room for the meeting. Almost every single one of them was a supporter [of the library]. And we consistently saw that,” Mark Adler, director of the Paris-Bourbon County Library, said. “They wrote into our newspaper, they came to our board meetings, and they made it very clear that they valued—if not the books that were being challenged, if not the content of the books that were being challenged—they valued the notion that everybody has the right to choose for themselves what they read.”

Paris-Bourbon County Public Library, Paris, Kentucky. Photo Credit: Emily Hilliard.

Throughout the interviews, we witnessed the passion of librarians as devoted public servants. They design their libraries to meet the changing needs of their patrons. And as most of them told us, libraries are dynamic spaces. The people who work at them are constantly exploring the needs of their communities as they evolve, from championing early literacy to providing spaces for adults to congregate for book clubs or legal depositions. Their bookmobiles traverse the undulating roads of rural Kentucky to bring books and internet access to their communities. Rural libraries like the ones we visited seek to bring the power of knowledge to the far corners of the state. They strive to bring people together and become conduits of collective and cultural engagement in their communities.