Challenges of the Rural Environment in a Global Economy

INFORMATION HAS BECOME A CRITICAL part of successful economic develop ment for individuals, businesses, and communities. Lack of access to information was at least partially responsible for rural America's inability to keep up with urban increases in population, high-wage occupations, income, and education levels during the 1980s. Among rural areas, growth in farmingdependent counties and persistent poverty counties was hindered by their remoteness from major metro areas. At the other end of the spectrum, rural high-amenity and retirementdestination counties had the advantage of attractive amenities, and rural counties adjacent to large metro areas benefited from their ties to the major centers of information. Nearly all rural counties contain public libraries, some of which are already telecommunications linked. With funding for infrastructure and human capital improvements, more rural libraries could serve as links in improving rural access to the information highway and the knowledge transported on that highway. INTRODUCTION Access to information and its effective use as knowledge are critical elements of successfully living in today's world. Moreover, this fact is increasingly recognized as equally true for people, businesses, and communities. The much touted Information Age is very real. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly, Peter Drucker (1994)writes about the world transformation into a knowledge society: "Increasingly, an educated person Sara Mills Mazie, Rural Economy Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Room 1226, 1301 NewYork Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005-4788 Linda M. Ghelfi, Rural Economy Division, Economic Research Service, U.S.Departmentof Agriculture, Room 324,1301 NewYork Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005-4788 LIBRARYTRENDS,Vol. 44, No. 1, Summer 1995, pp. 7-20