As digital access and education have become increasingly widespread, rural Appalachia, a historically marginalized region of the eastern United States, remains heavily impacted by the digital divide, with lower levels of digital access and use than average rates throughout the US. The digital divide is well-established from a rural-urban…

Lack of funding, equipment, and expertise tops the list of reasons standing in the way of many smaller cultural heritage organizations digitizing their archival collections. Expanding on existing relationships with regional public libraries and museums, a pilot project was developed to address these reasons, partnering a university library's…

Purpose: Evaluation of public library makerspaces traditionally examines achievement of library goals, which reflect leaders' and funders' values. Understanding makers' experiences and perspectives may help evaluators frame their inquiry to reflect community values, test assumptions about makers and support democratic and equity-focused aims. This…

In the fall and winter of 2020, New America embarked on a snapshot study to gather data on how--or if--people were discovering, accessing, and using their public libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on materials that libraries made available online. Our findings, which include data from a national survey of 2,620 people, highlight…