Book Mobiles

Fast forward thirty years. The magic of the bookmobile remains. But the magic has evolved. Whereas the bookmobile of my youth was a place for my imagination to run amok (and today’s bookmobiles still provide this outlet for all), bookmobiles today have changed the way a library connects to the people it serves. Bookmobiles today serve a more effectual purpose than before—but that is not to say bookmobiles of my youth were ineffectual. As a valued part of any library’s arsenal, bookmobiles today help to disseminate information, erase barriers, and equalize opportunity for all patrons—much like in the past, only in different guises today. Bookmobiles today have spawned other mobile outreach vehicles: vans, buses, campers, bicycles, and scooters; and it is within all these different vehicles that a new type of outreach has developed.

Growing up in the 1960s, Storm Reyes lived and worked in migrant labor camps across Washington state. When she was 8 years old, she began working full-time picking fruit for under a dollar an hour. At StoryCorps, Storm shared stories of her difficult childhood with her son, Jeremy Hagquist, and remembers the day a bookmobile unexpectedly arrived, opening up new worlds and bringing hope.

AP.

In "The Bookmobile," a StoryCorps project, a young Native American girl shares a tale of discovery.

One woman has started her own effort to make sure more kids get their hands on books this summer. With help from local business Nickel City Cycles, she plans to hit the streets of Buffalo by bike and hand out free books along the way. Amy Ozay, who started the movement in the Queen City, moved to Buffalo from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where people gave out free books on bikes.

National Bookmobile Day (Wednesday, April 13, 2016) celebrates our nation’s bookmobiles and the dedicated library professionals who provide this valuable and essential service to their communities every day. National Bookmobile Day is an opportunity for bookmobiles fans to make their support known—through thanking bookmobile staff, writing a letter or e-mail to their libraries, or voicing their support to community leaders. National Bookmobile Day is coordinated by the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services, the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS), and the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL).

An Indonesian villager is encouraging rural children to read by delivering books with his free mobile library on the back of his favorite horse Luna.

Three times a week Ridwan Sururi, 42, travels with his "horse library" on the dirt tracks of Indonesia's Central Java Province to provide books for young readers in an area where libraries are rare and school resources are limited.

"The purpose of this library is to encourage reading. The reason why I used the horse is because, in my opinion, the horse attracts children," Sururi explained.

All of the books in the mobile library were given to him by friends and donors.

From Mobile library delivers books on horseback in rural Indonesia | Reuters

In 2013, school librarian Alicia Tapia created Bibliobicicleta, a free, mobile library pulled by bike. Since then, Tapia and Bibliobicicleta have rolled up to San Francisco parks, farmers markets, museums, and beaches to distribute free books and help spread a love of reading.

From Librarian Shares Her Love of Books with a Bike-powered Mobile Library - Shareable

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) Now this was a cool job, being part of a brand new program from Virginia Beach Public Library, initiated by librarian Kellye Carter, called Books at the Beach.

On this day another librarian with 33 years experience was helping us out, Denise Barnhart. The WVEC reporter, Joe Flanagan (pictured, center) was worried that offering free books to Oceanfront visitors may be a challenge because he didn't have any librarian skills.

"We can teach that. We can't teach compassion. We can't teach caring. But we can teach anybody how to do the day-to-day things," said Kellye Carter, manager of the Oceanfront Area Library. The books were collected by the Friends of the Library.

From The LA Times www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0419-straight-bookmobile-20150419-story.html:

Bookmobiles have been a fixture of rural American life since the 19th century, when horse-drawn book wagons stenciled with gold lettering read Free Library. There were low-slung black panel trucks in the 1930s, side doors open to shelves, with children sitting on the wide fenders turning pages.

In the Riverside (CA) Public Library recently, I read the catalog from the Gerstenslager Co. in Wooster, Ohio, which built bookmobiles for the nation. Children and adults stood in line to ascend a few stairs and be inside a real library, albeit one with shelves set on a slight incline, so books wouldn't fall out when the coach was moving.

Laurence Copel, youth outreach librarian and founder of the Lower Ninth Ward Street Library in New Orleans, is the inaugural recipient of the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity. On June 29, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) will present her with a $3,000 check, $1,000 travel expenses, a certificate and "an odd object from Handler's private collection" during the American Library Association's Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.

"Copel is recognized for her extraordinary efforts to provide books to young readers of the Ninth Ward," said ALA president Barbara Stripling, adding that she "is a brilliant example of how librarians can serve as change agents. Her leadership and commitment show the vital role that librarians and libraries play in energizing and engaging the communities that they serve."

Known to the children in the Lower Ninth Ward as the Book Lady, Copel moved to New Orleans from New York City in 2010 and opened a library in her home through self-funding and small donations while living on $350 a week. She also converted her bicycle to a mobile book carrier allowing her to reach children and families that could not travel to her home. Story via Shelf-Awareness.com.

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:

From NPR, a new program to deliver books to Seattlites via bike.

By the loading dock of Seattle's downtown library, librarian Jared Mills checks his tire pressure, secures his iPads and locks down about 100 books to an aluminum trailer the size of a steamer trunk. The scene is reminiscent of something you'd see in an action movie, when the hero is gearing up for a big fight, but Mills is gearing up for something very different.

"If you're not prepared and don't have a lot of experience hauling a trailer, it can be kind of dangerous," Mills says, especially when you're going downhill. "The trailer can hold up to 500 pounds."

Mills is part of Seattle Public Library's Books on Bikes program, which aims to keep the library nimble and relevant by sending librarians and their bicycles to popular community events around Seattle.

After a hilly, 5-mile bike ride to a local farmers market, Mills sets up shop among the fruit and vegetable booths. The bright orange trailer is custom-made with bookshelves and an umbrella holder (it is Seattle, after all).

Malena Harrang, in her early 20s, is visiting the market with a friend. She says Mills' book station is "like [a] carbon-neutral library on wheels — doesn't get better than that."

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]