As someone who works in Outreach and drives our library’s Bookmobile, I was drawn to the article The necessary nearness – an ode to bookmobiles (Lauersen, 2025). In this article, Lauersen discusses Bookmobiles as important tools for increasing access to library resources. This is most certainly true. However, Outreach departments do more than just drive Bookmobiles.
I live in suburban Chicago, in a village with a population of around 75,000. Our library district covers most, but not all, of this population. In my department, we have nine full-time staff. In addition to our weekly Bookmobile stops, shown by red stars on the map below, we have a library express van that brings carts of books into senior living facilities and preschools in the community (blue stars). During the school year, we visit all five village elementary schools and three middle schools (green stars). Our bookmobile contains materials for all ages, not just for children.
But that’s not all. We also provide:
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- Home delivery service
- Monthly book clubs at two senior living communities
- Memory care programs at three senior facilities
- Monthly storytimes at preschools and daycares
- Book talks and puppet shows at elementary schools
- Summer programs for families at local parks in collaboration with the park district.
- Library representation at community events throughout the year
- Teacher services, including teacher library cards and material delivery and pickup
- Read While You Wait – a selection of free books at laundromats, a doctor’s office, and an accounting office. We check on these collections monthly and restock as needed.
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As I reflect on the services we provide in outreach, one area we can improve is our services for adults. We tend to focus on children, family, and senior programming. While we do have materials for adults on the Bookmobile, we could definitely add more programming to attract adults to the Bookmobile.
Lauersen goes on to say, “The most important element in a strong reading culture is other people to convey the stories and books,” and includes librarians in the list of those people. One of the things I love about outreach is the relationships that we form with our patrons. I have seen children and adults come onto the bookmobile saying they aren’t readers, but then, after they find the right book, they will come back for more. As Lauersen says, “A strong reading culture is a societal investment – not an expense.” I am proud to say I am part of this societal investment working in Outreach.
Reference
Lauersen, C. (2025). The necessary nearness – an ode to bookmobiles. Retrieved 6/29/26 from https://christianlauersen.net/2025/02/05/the-necessary-nearness-and-ode-to-bookmobiles/
I was just in Chicago last week—beautiful historic city! Having a Bookmobile is a great way to bring library services to underserved communities. My city library has been looking to create one for years, maybe it will finally happen soon (if funding goes smoothly)! I think it is a good idea to attract adults to use the Bookmobile as well. In this digital environment, it would be nice to have working adults read physical books for a change.
There are definitely growing pains that come with a new Bookmobile! It’s not all sunshine and roses. Haha. Our bookmobile works well in our village because we have wide streets and open spaces. When I was taking the driving lessons with it, my instructor insisted on having me drive into Chicago so I could experience narrow streets. Not in the Loop thank goodness, but I had to drive in industrial areas with lots of other big trucks. It was not fun. My manager got mad at the instructor since we really don’t leave Bolingbrook unless it’s to go to vehicle maintenance facilities. And we NEVER drive in Chicago. But now it is a fun story that gets shared whenever we have other outreach departments visit our library to tour the Bookmobile.
@jenfredrick I’m on my way to leave a comment on this post in general, but I caught this bit about you being instructed to drive into Chicago in the bookmobile. Period. I would be out of my mind. I used to drive from Dominican and River Forest home to Indiana like twice a week, usually late at night or sometimes in the late late afternoon with all the crazy traffic, it was something. You are courageous.
@michael, I’m not sure if courageous is the word I would use for it. I’m not scared of Chicago traffic because my oldest lives in the Lakeview East neighborhood and we have to drive on Lake Shore Drive to get there. But that’s in my own car. I did learn quickly why Chicago Public Libraries do not have large bookmobiles. Driving the bookmobile has definitely given me more respect and patience for truck drivers, that’s for sure.
@jenfredrick oh, I remember Lakeshore Drive from all my commute from Indiana. That was always something. 😀😀😀 also just getting out of Chicago to Indiana was strategically planned. And I most often took the skyway just because it was quicker even with the cost.
Hello from a fellow Chicago suburb library worker, Jen! I really enjoyed hearing about your experience driving the book mobile and the resources it provides. Cudos for the all the outreach your library provides; I often think my own library in Broadview could do more of it, though admittedly we don’t serve nearly as large a community as Bolingbrook. In fact, there are many independent village libraries adjacent to our area, so patrons will often “shop around” if they can’t find a certain book or resource at their home library. We have enough dedicated users that I can’t help but wonder how else we could level up our services and meet the community where they are at, rather than having them always come to us. Perhaps a bookmobile, perhaps book lockers sprinkled around the village–who knows?
Hi Nathanael,
Thanks for your comments. Your mention of book lockers made me realize I forgot to add that to the list of things we do! We have two book drop boxes in the community that we are responsible for checking every day. We get anywhere from 0 to 150 books a day from those bins! We have a set of book lockers right outside our library building that our circulation takes care of. And we have offsite book lockers located in one of the park district buildings. We get to manage that every day as well.
@jenfredrick this was a very informative post to give insights into the work you do outreach. Toward the end, you asked an important question about how do we reach adults with a book mobile? What would that look like? My first thought is probably because of the tourism culture up here is park the bookmobile by the fancy restaurants and all the bars and wine tasting places in Traverse City for the adults to take a book break while they are enjoying themselves. This is really interesting to think about.
I love the way your library is reaching so many more in the community with the bookmobile. I imagine it must be quite the spectacle at schools when the kids find it parked outside!
As for providing more programming for adults, I came across this awhile ago. In addition to the walking club, the organizer also owns a book truck: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-10-13/los-angeles-audiobook-walking-club
I haven’t joined in on a walk (yet), but it looks like a lot of fun! I visited Chicago a couple of summers ago and remember there were a lot of places with plenty of foot traffic to make some potential connections. Thank you for sharing your experience!