Challenges

After interviewing rural librarians, we found the following challenges experienced by them when serving farming communities:

  • No specific service to farmworkers
  • Lack of staff
  • Unable to leverage partnerships
  • Age / Lack of willingness to learn technology
  • Lack of awareness about technology
  • Internal challenges
  • External resistance
  • Lack of willingness of government
  • Funding, especially access and use
  • Inability or lack of desire of patrons to access the library
  • Inability to meet patron needs
  • Diverse needs of patrons
  • Patrons’ lack of time and patience
  • Unpredictable nature of attendance for programs
  • Discouragement due to low attendance for programs
  • Being overwhelmed by multiple responsibilities
  • Lack of availability
  • Constantly learning new technology solutions
  • Inability to answer patrons’ questions
  • Patrons unaware about the library and its services / General awareness about libraries
  • Outreach
  • Policy
  • Library as a low-priority service
  • Language barrier
  • Lack of patience
  • Technology as an afterthought — low-priority investment
  • Poor connectivity
  • Apathy toward libraries
  • Lack of farming experience
  • Complexity of patron problems, needs, and expectations
  • Theft
  • Lack of awareness about minority farmworkers
  • Decreasing farms and farming jobs
  • Lack of mechanisms to identify and serve farming-related patrons
  • Lack of customized training to meet patron needs
  • Diverse age groups
  • Patrons’ perceptions of library
  • Serving patrons who cannot read
  • No minority farmworkers as patrons
  • Lack of ideas
  • Lack of awareness
  • Lack of relationships with specific local stakeholders
  • Limited experience
  • Lack of space
  • Serving farm community as a low priority
  • Technology infrastructure