Bookmobiles

I’ll never miss an opportunity to post a story on Book Mobiles! Here’s One From Wisconsin State Journal: Since 1967, the big green bus has been chugging around the county, making sure those who can ‘t get to a bricks and mortar library can maintain their contact with literacy.

But the bookmobile is becoming something of a dinosaur around the country. Though there are still about 900 operating — it is a big country, you know — they are slowly being displaced. The Boston Globe reports bookmobiles are going out of business all over Massachusetts and that those that remain in operation are struggling.

Colorado Springs Gazette Has One on The Pikes Peak Library District bookmobile. Six days a week, weather permitting, the district’s two bookmobiles trek out to the small towns scattered across the vast expanses of the county north and east of Colorado Springs. In an area where a visit to a bricks-and-mortar library can be a daylong haul, the arrival of the library on wheels is a big deal — like Santa arriving by sleigh. Folks with totes and plastic grocery sacks crowd aboard the vehicle, eagerly choosing from the 4,500 books, magazines, CDs and videos.

Anonymous Patron writes “The OCRegister has some Sad News. Demand for the service falls as costs increase. Only two cities in Orange County still have them.
The nation’s bookmobiles are slowly going the way of the dinosaurs, killed off not by meteors, but by new technology and rising fuel prices.

On Thursday, Santa Ana became the latest city to say goodbye to the bookmobile, citing high costs and relatively low patronage.”

Anonymous Patron writes “Libraries and other services are having a hard time keeping up their service levels. The BiblioServiceBus is a Dutch initiative whereby a number of organisations and services joined forces to offer the inhabitants a much wider service than just borrowing books. From banking services to health information to reporting small crimes to the police. It’s all part of the
BiblioServiceBus“.

DAMASCUS – Ministry of Culture received Wednesday a Japanese culture gift consisting of five mobile public libraries as part of an agreement signed between the two governments in 2003 to narrow the gap between urban, rural and distant areas in some Syrian governorates, Syrian Arab News Agency reports.

The USD-265,000-gift included libraries equipped with bookshelves, service tables and 29-inch TV sets, video equipment to tour distant areas in Aleppo, Hama, al-Hasaka, Raqqa and Deir Ezzour.

Anonymous Patron writes “This city’s bookmobile has come to a halt, after more than four decades of service.
“It is kind of a sad day for us,” said Nancy Giere, bookmobile coordinator for the Fargo Public Library.
The decision to retire the library on wheels was made last summer, but it was news to most of the children who were informed last week. Cindy Hutchins, principal at Nativity Elementary, said she announced it last Wednesday.
Library Director Charles Pace said the bookmobile no longer makes sense now that there will be library branches on both sides of town in addition to the downtown site. The 16-year-old vehicle also was getting worn down, and a new one would cost at least $250,000, he said.”

The Milwaukee Public Library is staring down reduced hours and elimination of its bookmobile service as the Wisconsin city struggles with budgetary concerns. Also facing the axe are firefighting staffing levels and graffiti abatement. The Central Library would close early one evening a week as part of the saving measures.

The bookmobile itself was funded in the past through with federal block grant money. But a $2 million cut in the money the city received this year means the service will, most likely, be eliminated. The Mayor of Milwaukee Tom Barrett hopes that a company or other group would sponsor the Bookmobile.

Missourians will see a colorful addition on the road come fall, as the Missouri River Regional Library has sponsored a contest to select the graphics for their new bookmobile. The contest is open to all who wish to participate. The deadline for submissions is Friday, August 5, 2005. Additional details about the contest can be found at the MLRL website.

Located in Jefferson City, the Missouri River Regional Library provides service Cole and Osage Counties in Missouri.

The Curmudgeony Librarian writes “Natrona County Public Library in Casper, Wyoming is the first of many library systems facing trouble for their bookmobiles, as gas prices rise. With a route that takes it over 300 to 350 miles every two weeks, the rising fuel costs are putting a crimp in the budget. Gas prices are up over sixty cents a gallon over last year. Also affected by the price crush is the local Meals on Wheels program. It is uncertain when, if ever, gas prices will stabilize or drop to lower levels.”

Anonymous Patron writes “baltimoresun.com on Mary Titcomb who One hundred years ago, invented the bookmobile by installing bookshelves on a horse-drawn wagon and sending it out to the rural reaches of Washington County, where Titcomb was the library director.
At a birthday party for the bookmobile yesterday, Washington County Free Library Director Mary C. Baykan called Titcomb a visionary. Library patrons ate free cake and gazed at photographs of the vehicle’s evolution from a humble buggy with 200 volumes to a full-sized bus carrying 4,000.”