In this episode of Our Indiana: Stories from Rural Hoosiers, host Denny Spinner records from the Washington Carnegie Public Library in Washington, Indiana, and sits down with Teresa Heidenreich, executive director of the Washington Carnegie Public Library, and Susan Graber, director of the Odon Winklepleck Public Library.
Together, they explore the evolving role of rural public libraries as essential community hubs—places that provide far more than books. From reliable internet access and technology support to cultural programming, lifelong learning opportunities, and preservation of local history, Teresa and Susan share how libraries serve as “great equalizers” in rural Indiana.
Tune in to discover why rural libraries are at the heart of their communities—and why stepping through the library doors might surprise you.
Read the transcript
[INTRO MUSIC]
Denny Spinner
This is Denny Spinner, your host for Our Indiana: Stories from Rural Hoosiers recording today at the Washington Carnegie Public Library in Washington, Indiana. We are here with Teresa Heidenreich, the executive director of the Washington Carnegie Public Library, and Susan Graber, the director of the Odon Winklepleck Public Library. Welcome, ladies, and thanks for being here today.
Teresa Heidenreich
Thank you.
Susan Graber
Thank you for having us.
Denny Spinner
This is all about rural Indiana. So in a rural town, the library many times is the only place where people can go to get Wi-Fi, or on a day like this, a warm seat in the winter, a bulletin board that knows about everything that's going on. But it's also so much more than that. So tell me, what's a day like in your library? Just give me the typical—if there is a typical day—what's a day like in your library?
Susan Graber
No day is the same.
[LAUGHTER]
We do have several patrons that come in on a regular basis to use a computer, and that's probably about the only thing that would be an average day, because otherwise it depends on the programs that are happening, depends on community events, and even the weather outside sometimes makes a difference in what happens at the library. So no two days are the same. It's one good thing about rural libraries, or a library in general probably, is that no two days are the same.
Teresa Heidenreich
So a typical day at our library is full of life. I think you already saw that as you were coming in today with the STEM lab. You'll see families enjoying children's programs, seniors browsing newspapers, you might see people tucked away doing homework, people asking for help at the front desk with document services. We do a lot of those. I know you probably do too, Susan, don't you? Scanning and notary and all of the things. And then behind the scenes, you'll see our staff always on the go, doing something for someone. So it's definitely—I have right here on my notes—no two days are ever the same.
Denny Spinner
So there is—you talked about it briefly there—there is a different role, or a specific role, that a rural public library has that may be different than when you think about a library in an urban area. What are some of those roles people might see and say, “I didn't know that”? What would be a role that the public library plays in a rural community that somebody might never have thought about?
Teresa Heidenreich
I think one of the things in a rural community is that we offer a lot of cultural programming—arts and culture. I think people in larger urban areas have great access to those things through the university or other venues, but in a small town, we may not have those opportunities, and we try to bring them to the library so people can have access for free.
Denny Spinner
And I think one of the things that I noticed too in rural libraries is that you are the record keeper for your community. There's a lot of history that goes along in your library that is preserved by the fact that you are that keeper of that history that's part of these rural communities.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, we’re kind of the gatekeepers of those things. We have an incredible county museum here in Washington. It's the Daviess County Museum, and they do a wonderful job collecting information and historic documents and artifacts, and we do our part. What all do you do at your library, Susan? Do you have a lot of those things too?
Susan Graber
We actually don't, because we have such a small building, we don't have room to store a lot of that. We do keep the Odon Journal on microfilm, so we do have that.
Denny Spinner
So tell us a little bit about your partnership with IU. How did that come about, and what were the things that made your relationship special that allowed you to grow a little bit in your community?
Susan Graber
I think somehow I stumbled across it, but I don't remember. It's been a few years ago, so I don't remember for sure how I came across it. We did have a few programs through Discovery Café. I had scheduled a few things, so I think I just stumbled across it.
Denny Spinner
Sometimes that's the best way to find out.
Teresa Heidenreich
We find out a lot of things that way, right? For us here in Washington, we have had a long partnership with IU, mainly because that's where all of us went to college to get our degrees in library science. So we've known about IU for a long time, and it's great that they're only 60 miles away because we can take advantage of Discovery Café and things like that.
But we've been using them for a long time, especially as a resource for speakers. We love lifelong learning programs here at our library in Washington, and it's just a great place to go to get people who are well-versed and educated in researched topics to present programs.
We utilize the Jacobs School of Music for arts and culture programming, and we've also partnered with IU to do things like our International Night. Washington has a very diverse community, different than Odon, and that's an interesting aspect. Being in the same county, our libraries serve such different communities, and that's kind of cool, because we each focus on specialized things.
Denny Spinner
You mentioned that while you're in the same county and just a few miles apart, there are a lot of unique things that happen. What are those unique things? You do a lot of things together, but you also meet unique community needs.
Susan Graber
We're definitely not as diverse as what Washington is, so our community needs are more providing resources to the people. In the last few weeks, I was reminded again of just how important libraries are for printing services or faxes or internet. We even had a patron stop in and was hoping we could give them a ride back home because it was raining and cold outside. So we do get those kinds of needs.
Teresa Heidenreich
For Washington, we do have a very diverse community. I believe the local school system, at one time a couple of years ago, noted that over 20 languages are spoken just in Daviess County, and a lot of those are in Washington. And I thought that was fascinating. A lot of those people live in the city limits of Washington, and that's who we serve specifically, the city residents. On a day-to-day basis, we could be having to translate, do a lot of document services, faxing of immigration reports and records for people, emailing, helping someone understand how to use the translator on their phone.
We went as far as to purchase a large translating device because it's just a day-to-day thing here that we run into. It has a lot of great benefits because it's a good reminder that rural communities are very dynamic. I think sometimes people think about rural communities and think that everybody's just kind of boring or they don't know what they're doing. Maybe I'm stereotyping and generalizing, but we're just so dynamic.
The two communities you guys serve have a predominantly large Mennonite and Amish population, right? And that looks totally different than what it looks like here. But we all have the same purpose, and that's to provide information access and all the different services you can get at the public library.
Denny Spinner
As you talk about access, of course we're recording digitally. We're not using videotape or audio tape or anything like that. It is a digital age. What are some of the things that you need to address, or what are the issues that you see in digital access coming into your community? The library is leading the way in some of those things. What are the barriers to access that you see that you can address and help with in your community?
Teresa Heidenreich
Reliable internet. The city of Washington does do pretty well with internet, but we have a lot of people coming in here that live in other townships outside of the city. Where my oldest son lives, he doesn't live very far out into the area, about three or four miles out, and they can't get good, fast, reliable internet, and it's very expensive.
If someone were to take a class online, you've got to have reliable broadband. People come into the library and use our Wi-Fi access or our computers to take college classes and things like that. Other barriers are financial barriers. Not everybody can afford to have a computer or the internet. People have their phones, and a lot of them have internet access on their phones, but maybe there's limited data. Have you ever tried to fill out a job application on a phone? It's kind of hard. Or to type your resume—you need an actual desktop computer.
Another barrier is transportation. It's sometimes hard in a rural community to get transportation to the place where you might be able to get help. We're fortunate that in the city we have a local bus system, so that's important too. But I don't know about Odon. I'm sure it's a lot of the same things.
Susan Graber
It is. We do have people just a mile or two out of town that, if the internet goes down, they're stuck. Being able to come to the library and have reliable internet is very important. Another thing I've found with keeping up with the digital age is that people have data on their phones, so they have applications and documents in their email, and they have no way of getting them.
Having a library that can keep up with technology and give them a way to get that stuff printed from their phone has been very important for us, and a big step that we made a couple of years ago.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, like with the wireless printing?
Susan Graber
Yes, oh, yeah.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, we use that all the time. It's crazy.
Denny Spinner
You know, the library, also in this digital age, is seen as a place where lifelong learning happens. You know, I know that there's a hunger for more learning as you continue to age, and I'm one of those people. But what does the library do in helping to sustain that or fit that need for lifelong learning in your community? Give us some ideas about that.
Teresa Heidenreich
Well, for us, we have a very vibrant reading program for adults, the summer reading program and winter reading program. We have upwards of 100 or more adults participate in that every year, in each one, and we have a lot of diverse speakers come in, like from IU so on and so forth. And it's we have thematic topics, usually revolving around travel to other countries or other places in the United States, and there's just such a hunger for learning in adults, and so we'd love to be able to provide that.
And we do a lot of travel logs. We also realize that socialization is really important for lifelong learning, so we do a biweekly coffee and chat. I think sometimes people think of things like that as just a gossip session with coffee, but we solve world problems in those coffee and chats. We talk a lot about community and networking and what's going on in Washington that we might be able to help with. It takes its own little path.
Susan Graber
For Odon, we're a smaller library. We have a much smaller staff, so we can't do things on the scale that Washington does, simply because we don't have the staff. But we do try to come up with ideas that would interest older people or adults.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we had a speaker go to the senior center and speak on things to watch out for with scammers—how to avoid scammers, how to address it, and what red flags to look for. That was well attended. We've also had someone from IU come in to talk about AI—what it is and how it can be used. So we do try to pull in what we can.
Teresa Heidenreich
Well, a lot of the things that we do here are because we have wonderful donors, and I'm sure you guys are the same way. A lot of our programming definitely does not come out of our budget. A lot of it is sponsorships. Our Friends of the Library is very active in helping us sponsor things. We do have a larger staff, but we also serve a larger community, so it's give and take a little bit.
What's great about library programs is they're free and open to the public. We have people from Odon who come down and utilize our programs, and I'm sure we have people from our area who go up to your place. That's what's great about public libraries—we can share, and it's great to have that camaraderie that goes beyond Daviess County. It's libraries everywhere.
Denny Spinner
We’re talking about your specific work, but you're mentioning that this is a common thread across rural libraries across our state. What can you say to patrons who may not be as engaged in their library as they should be? What would they find there that could really enrich what they're doing?
What would you say to a patron in a rural community who has a library but has never gone in that door, even though they walk by or drive by it every week?
Teresa Heidenreich
I think the first thing is just to get them in the door. I think people sometimes have preconceived notions about what libraries are. Kind of like the statement of, “Do people still use libraries?” People still need libraries. And it's like, well, you don't really understand until you walk in and see the place, because there's so much going on. On any given day, you never know what you're gonna find. And I think just because you might drive by and find the parking lot empty, you know, half an hour later, you might not be able to find a parking place, because we have STEM story time and adult programming all going on at once.
It's a little bit of give and take, but I would say, come in and visit the library, see what our services are, and just be involved and get active. And even if you're not a big reader or don't want to attend the programs, it's still important to advocate for public libraries. That's kind of my message to people, is, if we don't advocate for things, they tend to go away.
Susan Graber
I would second that because we've had people come in, they'll say, “Oh, I've never been in here before,” and so they're surprised as to what this is or what you have. So I would second that. It's like, just go to your library and see what's there, and see what they have to offer.
Denny Spinner
As our listeners are looking at being more involved in a library, what can listeners learn more ways to support the library?
Teresa Heidenreich
I think, first and foremost, as we just mentioned earlier, visit your public library. Find out what's going on, be informed. I'm always amazed that people are just like, “Well, I didn't know that was going on with the library. I had no idea you guys did this stuff.” Look on our website. Call, stop by. Check our calendar. There's always something going on and ways to actively participate.
If you don't understand how libraries financially operate, I mean, we are a wonderful government service, and we are a government service. We are our own taxing entity. So you know, we're we control our own budgets and all that stuff, and budgets are shrinking throughout Indiana, especially in libraries, and I think it's important to maybe make an appointment with the director, to sit down and understand, you know, how are we funded? What can we do to help, whether it's through advocating, donating, sponsoring, helping us network—they're just all kinds of ways to be active, to support your public library, and to make sure that we stay the democratic entity that we are.
We're the great equalizers. You don't have to have money to come to the library. You don't have to have any reason. It is the one government place that you can just walk into any time we're open and sit here all day if you want to. It's fantastic.
Denny Spinner
So as we're in the new year and you look forward to what's going on at your library, what are some of the programs that our listeners should know about as they look to visit your library? We've already invited them in. What can they expect to see as they come to the library in this new year?
Susan Graber
I thought about texting my programmer or asking like, “Oh, so what do you have scheduled for January and February?” But I'm not sure. I do know she is planning, I think, to have another speaker come in sometime in February to talk about Black History Month. So she's got a few things scheduled for that.
And we are planning a few things to help celebrate America's 250th birthday next year. On our website, you'll find all of our events that are coming up. You can find us on social media. You can find it posted in the library. You may even find it posted in the Odon Journal. We try to post things there. So there's lots of ways that people can find out what's going on.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, and I'm sure—I know that you have regular things scheduled.
Susan Graber
We do.
Teresa Heidenreich
We do too. And starting with our STEM lab, our Little Explorer STEM Lab is every Monday morning, and then Monday afternoon is our open STEM lab for school kids. We have our coffee and chats. We have story time on Thursdays. We have our digital literacy workshops, just kind of sprinkled in throughout the month. Every Tuesday is Tech Tuesday, so if you need specific help with something technology based, you can make an appointment.
You can just stop by, but if you want more than, like, 20 minutes, you can make an appointment for 45 minutes, and we sit down one on one with you and help you with your technology need. That's been very popular. And we have winter reading coming up for adults. I spoke to that earlier. We also offer a spicy book club, so people who love romance books have a place to come and talk about them. I don’t attend, but, you know, somebody might want to.
And we just always have stuff going on. And I know we have families that cross the libraries here to go to story times and things. And that's so cool to me, how people can just attend things back and forth so
Denny Spinner
Well, obviously, in talking to you here today, I see a passion for what you do. You're both very much involved in your library and your role in life. What is that thing that drives you? What's the thing that makes you excited about getting up in the morning and coming in and being the librarian in your hometown? Give us an insight on that. What keeps you going?
Susan Graber
I taught school in a private school several years ago, so I learned from that the importance of reading and how reading keeps your brain sharp. But it's more than books. It's just being able to see people connect, having a place for them to find resources to help them in all areas of life, whether it's printing off a fax or whether it's sending a fax for someone to get some financial aid to help pay a bill, just to be able to serve people.
Also, when I started working in library, I just didn’t think I would like customer service, but after being there, it's like, you know what? Being able to help people is such a blessing. It's just amazing, and it's just exciting to be able to help people.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, I agree, Susan, with all of that it. I agree 100%. One of my favorite things to do is to observe the library staff interact with people. I interact with people a lot, too. But when you're when you're an observer, you can just pick up so much more of that and what's going on. It's kind of cool. I think it's cool, but, but, you know, books were important to me as a kid, I felt very, you know, misunderstood. I was very studious and nerdy. I probably still am, but books were—I mean, they understood me and I understood them. And I don't know, they really helped me through a lot of hard times. And so if that one kid can find that one book that they identify with that just helps them through whatever they're going through, that's important to me.
And then I also love the aspect of—libraries are one of the top social places for the elderly. We have—and I'm sure you do too—you have visitors that come inevery week or every other day because they know that we'll sit and listen to them talk.
Susan Graber
That's right.
Teresa Heidenreich
Sit and chat with them for 10 or 15 minutes. I think that's the precious thing about rural libraries, that we can do those things. I don't know if you can do that in Indianapolis Library or in Evansville. I don't know. I've not been to one, so I have no idea. But here, there are just social aspects and just so many different things. And I just love the fact that we are the great equalizers. I just keep going back to that.
We're a Carnegie building, and Andrew Carnegie had this passion that he wanted to get rid of all of his money. He didn't want to take any of it with him when he left. And so he started to build libraries all over the place. And because he believed that everyone deserved to have a free education, that you didn't need money for that. And that's important to me, that driving factor, that anybody can walk in here. It doesn't matter your economic status, the color of your skin, your belief systems, anything like that. You are welcome here.
And I dare say that we're probably one of the few places left where people can feel like they can just walk into your building and be safe. And so that's what drives me every day is just being that equalizer for people.
Denny Spinner
One of the things on the horizon is taking the library outside of the walls in Odon. Tell us about what's happening that can really extend your reach into your whole community beyond just coming in the doors.
Susan Graber
We have had a van gifted to us, and so we are very excited to be able to put books and other resources in that van. We're hoping to add some STEM stuff. We're hoping to add some hot spot devices, and to be able to get all of the good things out into our community.
Several years ago, when we expanded our library district, we knew that it was going to be hard for some people to get to the library because of the distance and the travel constraints. And so we were trying to come up with ways that we could reach all of our patrons, all of our district—our community, basically. And so when a van was made available for us, we just jumped on it. And it's like, this is where we need to go. It's been a long process, but we are excited about it—that early in 2026, we're going to have that van on the road going out into our community and taking all those good resources to our people.
Denny Spinner
And you talked already about the connection. That's maybe the only connection some people have. And to be able to take that and visit people in their space is something that's going to be very, very important.
Susan Graber
We're hoping that if they see the van and see the few things inthere, that they will want to come into the library, where there are more options, and do that. But for those that can't come at all, it will get our resources to them. So that's very important to us as a rural library too, is to be able to get resources out to everybody, and not just the people close by.
Denny Spinner
Well, that's very exciting. I know there's a lot of growth going on, a lot of exciting things coming on in the future. I really appreciate, Teresa and Susan, you being with us here today. We thank our listeners again for tuning in to another episode of Our Indiana: Stories for Rural Hoosiers.
[OUTRO MUSIC]
Denny Spinner
This is Denny Spinner, your host for Our Indiana: Stories from Rural Hoosiers recording today at the Washington Carnegie Public Library in Washington, Indiana. We are here with Teresa Heidenreich, the executive director of the Washington Carnegie Public Library, and Susan Graber, the director of the Odon Winklepleck Public Library. Welcome, ladies, and thanks for being here today.
Teresa Heidenreich
Thank you.
Susan Graber
Thank you for having us.
Denny Spinner
This is all about rural Indiana. So in a rural town, the library many times is the only place where people can go to get Wi-Fi, or on a day like this, a warm seat in the winter, a bulletin board that knows about everything that's going on. But it's also so much more than that. So tell me, what's a day like in your library? Just give me the typical—if there is a typical day—what's a day like in your library?
Susan Graber
No day is the same.
[LAUGHTER]
We do have several patrons that come in on a regular basis to use a computer, and that's probably about the only thing that would be an average day, because otherwise it depends on the programs that are happening, depends on community events, and even the weather outside sometimes makes a difference in what happens at the library. So no two days are the same. It's one good thing about rural libraries, or a library in general probably, is that no two days are the same.
Teresa Heidenreich
So a typical day at our library is full of life. I think you already saw that as you were coming in today with the STEM lab. You'll see families enjoying children's programs, seniors browsing newspapers, you might see people tucked away doing homework, people asking for help at the front desk with document services. We do a lot of those. I know you probably do too, Susan, don't you? Scanning and notary and all of the things. And then behind the scenes, you'll see our staff always on the go, doing something for someone. So it's definitely—I have right here on my notes—no two days are ever the same.
Denny Spinner
So there is—you talked about it briefly there—there is a different role, or a specific role, that a rural public library has that may be different than when you think about a library in an urban area. What are some of those roles people might see and say, “I didn't know that”? What would be a role that the public library plays in a rural community that somebody might never have thought about?
Teresa Heidenreich
I think one of the things in a rural community is that we offer a lot of cultural programming—arts and culture. I think people in larger urban areas have great access to those things through the university or other venues, but in a small town, we may not have those opportunities, and we try to bring them to the library so people can have access for free.
Denny Spinner
And I think one of the things that I noticed too in rural libraries is that you are the record keeper for your community. There's a lot of history that goes along in your library that is preserved by the fact that you are that keeper of that history that's part of these rural communities.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, we’re kind of the gatekeepers of those things. We have an incredible county museum here in Washington. It's the Daviess County Museum, and they do a wonderful job collecting information and historic documents and artifacts, and we do our part. What all do you do at your library, Susan? Do you have a lot of those things too?
Susan Graber
We actually don't, because we have such a small building, we don't have room to store a lot of that. We do keep the Odon Journal on microfilm, so we do have that.
Denny Spinner
So tell us a little bit about your partnership with IU. How did that come about, and what were the things that made your relationship special that allowed you to grow a little bit in your community?
Susan Graber
I think somehow I stumbled across it, but I don't remember. It's been a few years ago, so I don't remember for sure how I came across it. We did have a few programs through Discovery Café. I had scheduled a few things, so I think I just stumbled across it.
Denny Spinner
Sometimes that's the best way to find out.
Teresa Heidenreich
We find out a lot of things that way, right? For us here in Washington, we have had a long partnership with IU, mainly because that's where all of us went to college to get our degrees in library science. So we've known about IU for a long time, and it's great that they're only 60 miles away because we can take advantage of Discovery Café and things like that.
But we've been using them for a long time, especially as a resource for speakers. We love lifelong learning programs here at our library in Washington, and it's just a great place to go to get people who are well-versed and educated in researched topics to present programs.
We utilize the Jacobs School of Music for arts and culture programming, and we've also partnered with IU to do things like our International Night. Washington has a very diverse community, different than Odon, and that's an interesting aspect. Being in the same county, our libraries serve such different communities, and that's kind of cool, because we each focus on specialized things.
Denny Spinner
You mentioned that while you're in the same county and just a few miles apart, there are a lot of unique things that happen. What are those unique things? You do a lot of things together, but you also meet unique community needs.
Susan Graber
We're definitely not as diverse as what Washington is, so our community needs are more providing resources to the people. In the last few weeks, I was reminded again of just how important libraries are for printing services or faxes or internet. We even had a patron stop in and was hoping we could give them a ride back home because it was raining and cold outside. So we do get those kinds of needs.
Teresa Heidenreich
For Washington, we do have a very diverse community. I believe the local school system, at one time a couple of years ago, noted that over 20 languages are spoken just in Daviess County, and a lot of those are in Washington. And I thought that was fascinating. A lot of those people live in the city limits of Washington, and that's who we serve specifically, the city residents. On a day-to-day basis, we could be having to translate, do a lot of document services, faxing of immigration reports and records for people, emailing, helping someone understand how to use the translator on their phone.
We went as far as to purchase a large translating device because it's just a day-to-day thing here that we run into. It has a lot of great benefits because it's a good reminder that rural communities are very dynamic. I think sometimes people think about rural communities and think that everybody's just kind of boring or they don't know what they're doing. Maybe I'm stereotyping and generalizing, but we're just so dynamic.
The two communities you guys serve have a predominantly large Mennonite and Amish population, right? And that looks totally different than what it looks like here. But we all have the same purpose, and that's to provide information access and all the different services you can get at the public library.
Denny Spinner
As you talk about access, of course we're recording digitally. We're not using videotape or audio tape or anything like that. It is a digital age. What are some of the things that you need to address, or what are the issues that you see in digital access coming into your community? The library is leading the way in some of those things. What are the barriers to access that you see that you can address and help with in your community?
Teresa Heidenreich
Reliable internet. The city of Washington does do pretty well with internet, but we have a lot of people coming in here that live in other townships outside of the city. Where my oldest son lives, he doesn't live very far out into the area, about three or four miles out, and they can't get good, fast, reliable internet, and it's very expensive.
If someone were to take a class online, you've got to have reliable broadband. People come into the library and use our Wi-Fi access or our computers to take college classes and things like that. Other barriers are financial barriers. Not everybody can afford to have a computer or the internet. People have their phones, and a lot of them have internet access on their phones, but maybe there's limited data. Have you ever tried to fill out a job application on a phone? It's kind of hard. Or to type your resume—you need an actual desktop computer.
Another barrier is transportation. It's sometimes hard in a rural community to get transportation to the place where you might be able to get help. We're fortunate that in the city we have a local bus system, so that's important too. But I don't know about Odon. I'm sure it's a lot of the same things.
Susan Graber
It is. We do have people just a mile or two out of town that, if the internet goes down, they're stuck. Being able to come to the library and have reliable internet is very important. Another thing I've found with keeping up with the digital age is that people have data on their phones, so they have applications and documents in their email, and they have no way of getting them.
Having a library that can keep up with technology and give them a way to get that stuff printed from their phone has been very important for us, and a big step that we made a couple of years ago.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, like with the wireless printing?
Susan Graber
Yes, oh, yeah.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, we use that all the time. It's crazy.
Denny Spinner
You know, the library, also in this digital age, is seen as a place where lifelong learning happens. You know, I know that there's a hunger for more learning as you continue to age, and I'm one of those people. But what does the library do in helping to sustain that or fit that need for lifelong learning in your community? Give us some ideas about that.
Teresa Heidenreich
Well, for us, we have a very vibrant reading program for adults, the summer reading program and winter reading program. We have upwards of 100 or more adults participate in that every year, in each one, and we have a lot of diverse speakers come in, like from IU so on and so forth. And it's we have thematic topics, usually revolving around travel to other countries or other places in the United States, and there's just such a hunger for learning in adults, and so we'd love to be able to provide that.
And we do a lot of travel logs. We also realize that socialization is really important for lifelong learning, so we do a biweekly coffee and chat. I think sometimes people think of things like that as just a gossip session with coffee, but we solve world problems in those coffee and chats. We talk a lot about community and networking and what's going on in Washington that we might be able to help with. It takes its own little path.
Susan Graber
For Odon, we're a smaller library. We have a much smaller staff, so we can't do things on the scale that Washington does, simply because we don't have the staff. But we do try to come up with ideas that would interest older people or adults.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we had a speaker go to the senior center and speak on things to watch out for with scammers—how to avoid scammers, how to address it, and what red flags to look for. That was well attended. We've also had someone from IU come in to talk about AI—what it is and how it can be used. So we do try to pull in what we can.
Teresa Heidenreich
Well, a lot of the things that we do here are because we have wonderful donors, and I'm sure you guys are the same way. A lot of our programming definitely does not come out of our budget. A lot of it is sponsorships. Our Friends of the Library is very active in helping us sponsor things. We do have a larger staff, but we also serve a larger community, so it's give and take a little bit.
What's great about library programs is they're free and open to the public. We have people from Odon who come down and utilize our programs, and I'm sure we have people from our area who go up to your place. That's what's great about public libraries—we can share, and it's great to have that camaraderie that goes beyond Daviess County. It's libraries everywhere.
Denny Spinner
We’re talking about your specific work, but you're mentioning that this is a common thread across rural libraries across our state. What can you say to patrons who may not be as engaged in their library as they should be? What would they find there that could really enrich what they're doing?
What would you say to a patron in a rural community who has a library but has never gone in that door, even though they walk by or drive by it every week?
Teresa Heidenreich
I think the first thing is just to get them in the door. I think people sometimes have preconceived notions about what libraries are. Kind of like the statement of, “Do people still use libraries?” People still need libraries. And it's like, well, you don't really understand until you walk in and see the place, because there's so much going on. On any given day, you never know what you're gonna find. And I think just because you might drive by and find the parking lot empty, you know, half an hour later, you might not be able to find a parking place, because we have STEM story time and adult programming all going on at once.
It's a little bit of give and take, but I would say, come in and visit the library, see what our services are, and just be involved and get active. And even if you're not a big reader or don't want to attend the programs, it's still important to advocate for public libraries. That's kind of my message to people, is, if we don't advocate for things, they tend to go away.
Susan Graber
I would second that because we've had people come in, they'll say, “Oh, I've never been in here before,” and so they're surprised as to what this is or what you have. So I would second that. It's like, just go to your library and see what's there, and see what they have to offer.
Denny Spinner
As our listeners are looking at being more involved in a library, what can listeners learn more ways to support the library?
Teresa Heidenreich
I think, first and foremost, as we just mentioned earlier, visit your public library. Find out what's going on, be informed. I'm always amazed that people are just like, “Well, I didn't know that was going on with the library. I had no idea you guys did this stuff.” Look on our website. Call, stop by. Check our calendar. There's always something going on and ways to actively participate.
If you don't understand how libraries financially operate, I mean, we are a wonderful government service, and we are a government service. We are our own taxing entity. So you know, we're we control our own budgets and all that stuff, and budgets are shrinking throughout Indiana, especially in libraries, and I think it's important to maybe make an appointment with the director, to sit down and understand, you know, how are we funded? What can we do to help, whether it's through advocating, donating, sponsoring, helping us network—they're just all kinds of ways to be active, to support your public library, and to make sure that we stay the democratic entity that we are.
We're the great equalizers. You don't have to have money to come to the library. You don't have to have any reason. It is the one government place that you can just walk into any time we're open and sit here all day if you want to. It's fantastic.
Denny Spinner
So as we're in the new year and you look forward to what's going on at your library, what are some of the programs that our listeners should know about as they look to visit your library? We've already invited them in. What can they expect to see as they come to the library in this new year?
Susan Graber
I thought about texting my programmer or asking like, “Oh, so what do you have scheduled for January and February?” But I'm not sure. I do know she is planning, I think, to have another speaker come in sometime in February to talk about Black History Month. So she's got a few things scheduled for that.
And we are planning a few things to help celebrate America's 250th birthday next year. On our website, you'll find all of our events that are coming up. You can find us on social media. You can find it posted in the library. You may even find it posted in the Odon Journal. We try to post things there. So there's lots of ways that people can find out what's going on.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, and I'm sure—I know that you have regular things scheduled.
Susan Graber
We do.
Teresa Heidenreich
We do too. And starting with our STEM lab, our Little Explorer STEM Lab is every Monday morning, and then Monday afternoon is our open STEM lab for school kids. We have our coffee and chats. We have story time on Thursdays. We have our digital literacy workshops, just kind of sprinkled in throughout the month. Every Tuesday is Tech Tuesday, so if you need specific help with something technology based, you can make an appointment.
You can just stop by, but if you want more than, like, 20 minutes, you can make an appointment for 45 minutes, and we sit down one on one with you and help you with your technology need. That's been very popular. And we have winter reading coming up for adults. I spoke to that earlier. We also offer a spicy book club, so people who love romance books have a place to come and talk about them. I don’t attend, but, you know, somebody might want to.
And we just always have stuff going on. And I know we have families that cross the libraries here to go to story times and things. And that's so cool to me, how people can just attend things back and forth so
Denny Spinner
Well, obviously, in talking to you here today, I see a passion for what you do. You're both very much involved in your library and your role in life. What is that thing that drives you? What's the thing that makes you excited about getting up in the morning and coming in and being the librarian in your hometown? Give us an insight on that. What keeps you going?
Susan Graber
I taught school in a private school several years ago, so I learned from that the importance of reading and how reading keeps your brain sharp. But it's more than books. It's just being able to see people connect, having a place for them to find resources to help them in all areas of life, whether it's printing off a fax or whether it's sending a fax for someone to get some financial aid to help pay a bill, just to be able to serve people.
Also, when I started working in library, I just didn’t think I would like customer service, but after being there, it's like, you know what? Being able to help people is such a blessing. It's just amazing, and it's just exciting to be able to help people.
Teresa Heidenreich
Yeah, I agree, Susan, with all of that it. I agree 100%. One of my favorite things to do is to observe the library staff interact with people. I interact with people a lot, too. But when you're when you're an observer, you can just pick up so much more of that and what's going on. It's kind of cool. I think it's cool, but, but, you know, books were important to me as a kid, I felt very, you know, misunderstood. I was very studious and nerdy. I probably still am, but books were—I mean, they understood me and I understood them. And I don't know, they really helped me through a lot of hard times. And so if that one kid can find that one book that they identify with that just helps them through whatever they're going through, that's important to me.
And then I also love the aspect of—libraries are one of the top social places for the elderly. We have—and I'm sure you do too—you have visitors that come inevery week or every other day because they know that we'll sit and listen to them talk.
Susan Graber
That's right.
Teresa Heidenreich
Sit and chat with them for 10 or 15 minutes. I think that's the precious thing about rural libraries, that we can do those things. I don't know if you can do that in Indianapolis Library or in Evansville. I don't know. I've not been to one, so I have no idea. But here, there are just social aspects and just so many different things. And I just love the fact that we are the great equalizers. I just keep going back to that.
We're a Carnegie building, and Andrew Carnegie had this passion that he wanted to get rid of all of his money. He didn't want to take any of it with him when he left. And so he started to build libraries all over the place. And because he believed that everyone deserved to have a free education, that you didn't need money for that. And that's important to me, that driving factor, that anybody can walk in here. It doesn't matter your economic status, the color of your skin, your belief systems, anything like that. You are welcome here.
And I dare say that we're probably one of the few places left where people can feel like they can just walk into your building and be safe. And so that's what drives me every day is just being that equalizer for people.
Denny Spinner
One of the things on the horizon is taking the library outside of the walls in Odon. Tell us about what's happening that can really extend your reach into your whole community beyond just coming in the doors.
Susan Graber
We have had a van gifted to us, and so we are very excited to be able to put books and other resources in that van. We're hoping to add some STEM stuff. We're hoping to add some hot spot devices, and to be able to get all of the good things out into our community.
Several years ago, when we expanded our library district, we knew that it was going to be hard for some people to get to the library because of the distance and the travel constraints. And so we were trying to come up with ways that we could reach all of our patrons, all of our district—our community, basically. And so when a van was made available for us, we just jumped on it. And it's like, this is where we need to go. It's been a long process, but we are excited about it—that early in 2026, we're going to have that van on the road going out into our community and taking all those good resources to our people.
Denny Spinner
And you talked already about the connection. That's maybe the only connection some people have. And to be able to take that and visit people in their space is something that's going to be very, very important.
Susan Graber
We're hoping that if they see the van and see the few things inthere, that they will want to come into the library, where there are more options, and do that. But for those that can't come at all, it will get our resources to them. So that's very important to us as a rural library too, is to be able to get resources out to everybody, and not just the people close by.
Denny Spinner
Well, that's very exciting. I know there's a lot of growth going on, a lot of exciting things coming on in the future. I really appreciate, Teresa and Susan, you being with us here today. We thank our listeners again for tuning in to another episode of Our Indiana: Stories for Rural Hoosiers.
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The IU Center for Rural Engagement improves the lives of Hoosiers through collaborative initiatives that discover and deploy scalable and flexible solutions to common challenges facing rural communities. Working in full-spectrum community innovation through research, community-engaged teaching and student service, the center builds vision, harnesses assets and cultivates sustainable leadership structures within the communities with which it engages to ensure long-term success.