Rural Libraries as Resources and Partners for Outside Active Play Streets.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Urban and rural areas have different types of built environments and community infrastructure, which lead to different types of successful community-based physical activity initiatives. Temporary Play Streets are a supported way to increase physical activity and perceptions of the built environment as a space for active lifestyles. PURPOSE: Within the field of public health, public libraries constitute an underutilized community partner. To begin to understand the capacity of rural librarians to support rural Play Streets, a cross-sectional questionnaire was developed for distribution to rural librarians. METHODS: The sampling frame targeted members of the membership-based U.S. Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL). Among respondents, 65% reported offering outdoor physical activity programs in the past, and 61% reported continuing to offer versions of this programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Librarians work with a broad range of community partners on this programming, and already own much of the equipment necessary for a successful Play Streets initiative. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study corroborate claims from previous research, which shows that in small and rural communities, public libraries have the capacity to play a role in promoting physical activity through involvement in community partnerships. Additional work is needed to understand, evaluate, and support this opportunity to weave rural librarians into community-based physical activity promotion efforts more fully.