when i was a kid, we lived on the 'wrong' side of a county line, and thus, in a different township than was part of the nearest (7 miles away) public library's "service area"... tax sources, jurisdictions, and all that jazz. it was outrageously expensive to get an 'out of area' library card.. at least that's what i was told. we never had one.

so our library was a tiny rural library that was housed in an old one-room school house. it was open only a few hours a day, a couple days a week; instead of the 7 days a week at the public library in town (an original carnegie library).