“It’s like another world”: Intra-Rural Digital Divides and Public Libraries as Rural Assets

Abstract

While rural-urban approaches to digital divide research are common, less attention is paid to intra-rural digital divides occurring within rural areas. Hidden intra-rural digital divides can persist as rural-urban divides close, furthering digital inequity. Through six months of multi-sited ethnography in a rural Appalachian county, I highlight the presence and impacts of intra-rural digital divides. Analyzing these findings alongside existing literature on intra-rural digital divides, I contribute a framework of dimensions by which intra-rural digital divides can be defined. Drawing upon assets-based approaches in rural HCI and CSCW research, I identify rural public libraries as an important asset to be leveraged in closing intra-rural digital divides and advocating for intra-rural digital equity and inclusion.