FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE: Prom dresses, cake pans, and power tools: Welcome to the new public library

Public libraries have evolved to meet the needs of their communities, with some even building housing. As needs continue to change, so too will libraries.

John Agnew has lived in Caruthersville, a small farming community in Missouri’s southeast Bootheel region, for every one of his 42 years. Yet he hadn’t set foot in the public library, barely a block off the town’s main drag, until just a few weeks ago. “When I was younger,” he says, “I thought the library was just about books.”