I’ve been traveling in Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi and looking for library signs. Alas, in hundreds of miles and dozens of small towns, I’ve only seen 2 signs for libraries. I didn’t expect to come upon a library sign in larger communities, since it would be impossible to place a sign at all the places one could possibly see it. But in smaller communities, why isn’t there a sign? I’m hoping that it means that there simply isn’t a sign, rather than there isn’t a library.

I don’t know anything about libraries and their funding or locations in these states. But I find it hard to believe that there are only 2 libraries in the towns I went through. The road through these towns is the major road and would be the logical place for a sign. I got off the road in a couple of places to look for libraries. One such place was Moscow, Tennessee. I wanted to take a picture of the library to send to my friends at the Moscow, Idaho public library. But I couldn’t find a library. Believe me, Moscow TN is small enough that a library shouldn’t have been difficult to find (unless it was housed in the City Hall/Police Station, although there were no signs to indicate that.)

But then I wondered how many signs there are for libraries in Idaho. I know what communities have libraries and where the library buildings are (for the most part) so I haven’t been looking for a sign to point me to the library. But if I were a newcomer to your town, how difficult would I find it to locate your library?