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.

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.

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.

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