Bookmobiles

Library Director Linda Mielke wants to know — will the county fix their 1989 bookmobile or will they buy another snowplow? Out of service for 43 days last year, the creaky bookmobile usually carries over 48,000 volumes to patrons in all parts of the county surrounding Baltimore.
from the Baltimore sunspot

Robin from over at InMyBook spotted a sad NYTimes Story on bookmobile programs, while staging a comeback in some American cities, are sputtering in the struggling cities and towns of upstate New York.
Syracuse discontinued its bookmobile service in the late 1990\’s after financial cutbacks, and Buffalo\’s is currently under evaluation. \”There\’s nothing to say we\’re not going to have units, but we are studying them,\” said Sharon Holley, an administrator in Buffalo.

“Irene Roberts sits back in her rocking chair, hands folded neatly across her lap, looks out the window and slowly shakes her head. “Oh, all those beautiful books,” she says wistfully.”

“The Guelph woman, who recently celebrated her 82nd birthday, was reacting to news the Guelph Public Library’s popular Bookmobile was destroyed early Monday, in a fire police say was deliberately set.” (from Guelph Mercury)

O’Reillynet has a Good Story on the Internet Bookmobile and how it relates to Eldred v. Ashcroft.


They say the Bookmobile is a demo of a public domain application and it addresses the basic question: What good is the public domain.

“As we traveled the country and talked to people about the public domain, no one–not one single person–disagreed with this premise that more, not fewer, books should be in the public domain, and sooner rather than later.”

Karl passed along This Salon Story on The Internet Bookmobile. The Internet Bookmobile is a van on a mission: to drive across the country, stopping at schools, museums and libraries, making books for kids and spreading the word about the digital library that is the Net. Brewster Kahle wants to use the Internet to make books available to everyone.

Are you aware of the new project from the Internet Archive?

Volunteers will be traveling around the United States in a high-tech bookmobile from which people can link to the download the book of their choice. Volunteers have uploaded about 9,000 public domain books on the site.

The bookmobile will be making stops at schools, libraries and other educational institutions. Interestingly, it will stop in D.C. on Oct. 8, the day before the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Eldred v. Ashcroft (the constitutional challenge of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act).

Read the full story from Alternet.

News From IA that says a second-grader at Gilbert Elementary School visited the Ames Public Library\’s bookmobile and checked out two R-rated movies during school hours this spring. They say the school\’s proposals to control what students could check out did not match the library\’s principle of unrestricted access to library materials. Library staff members are unwilling to prohibit access to books and materials

Bob Cox sent in This One that says Bookmobile service will be established in the parking lot of the Stark County District Library branch that burned to the ground early Saturday. The Library Web Site seems to be down as well.

“I had to explain to them that sprinkler systems and libraries with books are not compatible,” she said. “I know most of the library systems, at least in Ohio, do not have sprinklers.

Follow Up.

From the Boston Globe:

The bookmobile\’s winding route includes stops at Ethel White\’s house in West Hawley, the New Ashford Town Hall and nearly 100 small towns and tiny libraries in the hills and valleys of Western Massachusetts . . .

More.

The projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project is a traveling exhibition of artist\’ book works, zines, and independent publications. Traveling by way of a vintage Airstream, the BOOKMOBILE aims to make its way to community centers, schools, festivals, artist run centers, libraries, prisons, and remote regions where independent publications are hard to come by.


Spotted at Mefi