The Provision of Home Library Services in Rural Australia

This study sought to explore if and how public libraries in rural Australia offer outreach to their communities via home library services (HLS) and what the benefits and challenges of such a service are. An email containing a link to an online survey was sent to 344 libraries obtained through publicly available data. 144 libraries responded, all states and territories are represented, except the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), with a response rate of 41%, with 80% of respondents indicating the provision of some form of HLS. Overall, public libraries believed the benefits of having an HLS outweighed the challenges but many felt more support and resources were necessary to implement successful programs. Libraries varied greatly in how a potential customer could access the HLS, the number of items a customer could borrow, the distances travelled to service these customers, how often customers were visited and how the service was promoted, if at all.