Scrappy Rural Librarians article featuring Bike the Trail Library to Library

The Lillie M. Evans Library in Princeville was featured in this article about innovative rural libraries:

https://ipondr.com/article/scrappy-rural-librarians-find-the-gaps-and-fill-them-5037

Bike the Trail Library to Library received a RAILS Partnership Grant in 2019.

There are currently five participating libraries on the trail system—Toulon Public Library, Wyoming Public Library, Lillie M. Evans Library, Dunlap Public Library, and Peoria Heights Public Library—and we are cooperating to:

• Provide bike repair stations at or by all five of the participating libraries
• Educate Trail users about the resources our libraries have to offer
• Develop online resources for trail users

Bike the Trail connects bikers and libraries in a unique partnership. Our hope is that this project will inspire other small rural libraries with limited staff and budgets to identify community assets that their libraries can utilize to fulfill their missions. We'd also like small rural libraries to consider partnerships with other libraries and community organizations to work synergistically to achieve goals that might seem daunting alone.