When A’ndrea McAdams arrived in Sundown nine years ago, the library was a volunteer-run remnant of what used to be a county branch. Today, under her leadership, the City of Sundown Library is an award-winning, grant-powered hub of access, wellness, and local pride, proof that innovation does not only belong to big cities.
A’ndrea’s path into librarianship began the way many rural stories do: as a mother in need of community. Storytime saved her, then she became the person who ran it. With a journalism background, she learned to translate community needs into compelling grant proposals, eventually bringing in more than $750,000 in private funding and national awards that transformed the building, its services, and its role in the town of 1,400. “We don’t want to be just a book house,” McAdams said. “We want to be the place in town where needs get met.”
A Telehealth Room in a Town With No Hospital
Like many small West Texas towns, Sundown is miles from major medical services. After learning about similar models at the TLA annual conference, A’ndrea asked a simple question during the library’s renovation: Why not us?
Last fall, the library opened a telehealth hub, a discreet, sound-buffered room used during the day for teletherapy and health appointments, and in the evenings as an e-sports lounge for teens.
The program quickly became an unexpected mental health bridge. Young adults, quietly, by word of mouth, began booking therapy sessions through the library’s intake service. The greatest demand has come from residents ages 18–40, including single parents, young couples, and students.
When the town experienced a death by suicide, the existence of the telehealth space changed the conversation. Law enforcement began referring people. Stigma gave way to access. “It’s been a great way to start conversations nobody wanted to start,” McAdams shared. “People will come here for help when they won’t go anywhere else.”
Thanks to support from the Hogg Foundation, the library also receives mental health training and is now in its second year of funded service.
Technology That Tells the Town’s Story
Not all innovation at Sundown Library is clinical. A Humanities Texas grant funded a project that brought local history onto the streets in the form of QR-coded signs. Residents can now scan plaques about town to learn why neighborhoods carry the names they do, like Slaughter Field, named after rancher C.C. Slaughter.
While students cannot use the codes during school trips due to restrictions, adults have embraced them. The project has quietly turned everyday streets into an informal walking tour of local identity.
A Small Staff Doing Big Things
The library operates with limited staff, including a part-time community health coordinator funded through grants, but its impact is multiplied by partnerships. From the American Heart Association’s “Libraries With Heart” consortium, to pet therapy visits, to summer nutrition classes with South Plains Food Bank, the Sundown Library has become a landing pad for services that otherwise never would have reached this rural area.
Marketing remains a challenge in a town where many needs go unspoken, but word-of-mouth has proven to be a cultural strength rather than a weakness.
The Model Emerging in West Texas
Sundown Library’s story is part of a larger shift: rural libraries are becoming frontline partners in community resilience, offering teletherapy, food access, workforce help, digital literacy, and belonging, all in one familiar place.
Sundown demonstrates that a library is a vital community hub for small towns. “It takes vision,” McAdams said, “but it also takes people, inside and outside the library, who believe a community like ours is worth investing in.” And in Sundown, that belief is changing lives.
