Rural library and information services, their success, failure and sustainability: a literature review

Abstract

Rural library and information centres could play a significant role in the socio-economic development of rural areas by providing information and communication services to the rural people. In most parts of the world, especially in the developing countries, these centres are plagued with various problems like insufficient funds, lack of government and community support, uncertainty about sustainability, etc. The centres are trying to solve these problems in various ways, although it has proved to be a very difficult task. This article highlights the problems and prospects of rural library and information services in different parts of the world by reviewing relevant literature contributed by development practitioners, library and information professionals, academics and others. It contains valuable insights and observations for making the rural library and information initiatives successful in the long run. The field of rural library and information services is changing continuously with the advent of new techniques and technologies. This paper will help achieve a better understanding of this changing landscape and provide specific directions for making this endeavour worthwhile and sustainable in the long run.

Reading interest and reading pattern of rural library users in a low literacy rate area

“…It also observed as an information center located in a village or suburban area, catering to the information needs of the rural people by providing services like reading room and circulation, reference, photocopying, newspaper clipping, etc. (Hoq, 2015).…”

Exploring the Role of Union Digital Center to Managing Information Services in Rural Development of Bangladesh

“…The research in this field is continuously exploring and opening the avenue of scholarly knowledge in both academic and practical areas. Previous research has designed on qualitative analysis, factors affecting, causes of being unsuccessful UDC, demographic hindrances, urban vs. rural focus and concentrated into specific fields namely agriculture, e-library, e-governance, addressing the problems (Islam & Hoq, 2010;Faroqi et al, 2019;Hoque & Sorwar, 2015;Chowdhury, S. 2018;Hoq, 2014;Habib et al, 2013;Hoque, R.2020;Kumar & Kim, 2017). The current study mitigates the resulting significant gap.…”

“…Whereas due to the unavailability of information and communication technology (ICT) is created the digital divide to provide proper facilities (Lim, 2017), merely appearing the tasks for the arrangement of ICT offices, isn't sufficient to limit the significant digital division, principally pastoral territories in developing nations. For this reason, (Hoq, 2014;Kumar & Kim, 2017), argued that developing nations should underscore the uses and exploration of ICT for rural development as a part of their contemporary sustainable development priority. A similar study of Chowdhury, S. (2018) contended that the rural administration is the lowest segment of the service to the villagers, which is still providing available services, make accessibility of information and added values but still lagged behind priority and concentration.…”

Building a Community Library

“…Although numerous popular Libellarium, XI, 1 (2018): 23-33 forms of information sources for rural dwellers can be identified, such as TV, radio, newspapers, friends, family members, community leaders, religious leaders, local influential people, elderly persons, school and college teachers, and non-governmental (NGO) workers (Dutta 2009;Phiri, Chipeta and Chawinga, 2018), the library is a highly rated source of relevant and dependable information owing to librarians' expertise, skills and competencies in searching, retrieving and providing information to users of diverse needs (Uzuegbu, 2016). Rural library and information centres are key to scaling up the social-economic development of rural dwellers through the provision of information and communication services (Hoq, 2015). However, as much of the world leaps forward with access to information and concomitant technology, there are still countries and communities where the digital divide might be more accurately typified as a digital chasm.…”