Bookmobiles

Growing up moving from farm to farm, Storm Reyes had to pack light. That meant no books. She felt hopeless about the future, until a bookmobile appeared in the fields and changed her life.

storycorps piece at NPR

from Laughing Squid.

Here’s a real oldie via Bennington College’s Crossett Library:

Combine a bookmobile with a food truck and what do you get? The Penguin Book Truck — and for good measure, the Penguin Book Pushcart.

By combining the concepts of bookmobile and food truck, book-publisher Penguin Group (USA) recently introduced its first mobile bookstore. And just like a good book, there’s a bonus inside: the Penguin Book Pushcart, which rolls out of the truck and down a ramp to make books even more accessible.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130711/AUTO03/307110040

“I was concerned that there wasn’t going to be any library service,” said Kysar, who lives in Yacolt. “I called to see what the plan was, and there wasn’t any plan.”

At the same time Kysar was talking to representatives from the library district, other community members began talking to Jeff Carothers, then a mayoral candidate and now mayor, about opening a library branch in the rural community just north of Battle Ground, which reported a population of 1,556 in the 2010 census.

[That’s Washington, NOT Oregon…oops]

From the Wall Street Journal, Joe Queenan recalls his lifelong habit of reading.

I started borrowing books from a roving Quaker City bookmobile when I was 7 years old. Things quickly got out of hand. Before I knew it I was borrowing every book about the Romans, every book about the Apaches, every book about the spindly third-string quarterback who comes off the bench in the fourth quarter to bail out his team. I had no way of knowing it at the time, but what started out as a harmless juvenile pastime soon turned into a lifelong personality disorder.

If you have read 6,000 books in your lifetime, or even 600, it’s probably because at some level you find “reality” a bit of a disappointment.

Fifty-five years later, with at least 6,128 books under my belt, I still organize my daily life—such as it is—around reading. As a result, decades go by without my windows getting washed.

Residents learned how to download e-books inside the Digital Bookmobile on Wednesday at the William K. Sanford Library in Colonie (near Albany NY). The 74-foot vehicle, which will be at the East Greenbush Community Library on Thursday, is on a nationwide tour to demonstrate broadband Internet-connected PCs, premium sound systems, and a variety of portable media players, all of which help visitors explore the library ebook download service.

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Photos-Digital-Bookmobile-3773595.php#ixzz233kApM2O

Bookmobile brings library to towns without one
Bookmobile Jr. is exactly what it sounds like: a smaller version of the mobile library, filled with children’s books and resources for day care owners. The library associates who travel with the driver affectionately call the vehicle “Junior” and travel to large and small day cares in Boone and Callaway counties.

Red Scare ensnared city’s first bookmobile librarian

All John Maitland Marshall wanted to do was help people get books from Victoria’s new bookmobile. But in 1954, he found himself at the centre of a major controversy and a victim of the Red Scare that reached into Canada — and its libraries.

Story on “Weekend Edition” on NPR

Those rolling reading rooms are becoming scarce — too costly and outmoded, some say. The bookmobile in one New England town just broke down, and residents are wondering if it’s time to shelve it in the history section.

Full piece

Check out The Argentinian Book Tank as bookmobile, aka a “weapon of mass instruction”.