Margaret Holloway

Founder & Editor-in-Chief

MLIS, University of Denver BA English, Colorado College 12 years public-library reference Boulder, CO

Background

Margaret spent her career in public libraries, most recently as the lead reference librarian at the Boulder Public Library Main Branch. She started her library career at a small branch in rural Larimer County, Colorado, in the early 2000s and moved to Boulder in 2011. From 2012 until she founded opcionrural.com in August 2024, she ran a weekly "Tech Help for Seniors" walk-in session — first an hour a week, then two, eventually three afternoons — that became one of the most-attended programs the branch offered.

Over twelve years, she estimates she walked more than 2,000 individual older adults through their first smartphone setup, alongside the daily questions she answered about email attachments, video calls, photo libraries, app updates, and "why is my screen suddenly upside down?" That practical experience is the backbone of everything she writes for opcionrural.com — when a guide explains a step a particular way, it's the way she actually explained it to a real person across a library table.

Areas she writes about

Choosing a first smartphone (or replacing an aging one).
Unboxing and first-hour setup on iPhone and Android.
Reading on a phone — making text bigger, magnification, screen brightness, dictation, and audio readers.
Photos: taking them, sending them, finding them again later.
Voice assistants and accessibility settings.
Family connection — video calling grandchildren, sharing photos with adult children, and group texts that don't get out of hand.

How she works

Every guide she writes starts as a notebook entry from a real reader question — usually a question that came up more than once at the library. She drafts the article on whichever device the reader was using, then re-does the steps on a second device. After publication, she keeps a running log of follow-up questions from readers and uses that log to drive each six-month re-verification pass.

Editorial principles

Never assume. Every technical term gets a plain-English definition the first time it appears in a guide.
Show the why, not just the tap. A senior who knows why a step exists is a senior who can find their way back when the menu has changed.
Respect the reader's time. No padding, no SEO filler, no "ultimate guide" overstatement.
Honest about what we don't know. If a guide isn't applicable to a specific phone model or carrier setup, say so on the page rather than burying it in the disclaimer.

Verify her credentials

Margaret welcomes credential verification. The institutions named in her credentials can confirm her education and employment directly:

MLIS — University of Denver: degrees can be verified through the Morgridge College of Education registrar at morgridge.du.edu.
Public-library tenure: employment dates can be confirmed via Boulder Public Library administration at boulderlibrary.org.
Direct verification: journalists, fact-checkers, and prospective collaborators may write to hello@opcionrural.com for credential confirmation; we reply within two business days.

Contact

Margaret reads reader email at our general contact page, which routes to hello@opcionrural.com. She replies personally to every message, even when a colleague drafts the reply.