(The Magic Book Bus of Asheville, NC)
Bookmobiles, something that many of us are familiar with at least in concept if not in personal experience. The idea of a library of wheels for direct dilivery to those who are unable to make it to the library or for further community outreach is not a new concept. It began in 1905 in Hagerstown, Maryland of Washington County which was a horse drawn book wagon created for outreach to the rural community (Nix 2012). Since its inception though, we have seen the bookmobile take on many various forms. In our reading for this module for example we have the Rolling Library of Sacramento which is the bookmobile for the digital age using the Sacramento library’s e-collection to be accessed by commuters on the light rail train.
There has also been even more creative forms of bookmobiles globally such as book boats bokbȧten and Epos in Norway and Sweden and El Biblioburro – ‘The Travelling Library in Columbia. Both of these services providing the same goal of reaching out to undeserved and rural towns/communities (Gutman 2023).
But to what end? Do we see an improvement from these bookmobiles? Yes. In one case in Graves County, Kentucky, it’s reported that about quarter of the library books that get checked out in the county are from the bookmobile [in 2017, it] averaged about 1,600 books a month” (Fifild 2018). People that are reached out to in the community from the bookmobile feel a connection. That there’s someone who cares for them enough to reach out and to bring the love of reading to them again. And that is a beautiful thing.
Works Cited:
Fifield, J. (2023, June 6). Yes, Bookmobiles are still a thing. (we checked.) • stateline. Stateline. https://stateline.org/2018/03/28/yes-bookmobiles-are-still-a-thing-we-checked/
Gutman, C. (2023, April 24). The most creative bookmobiles from around the world. BOOK RIOT. https://bookriot.com/bookmobiles-from-around-the-world/
Nix, L. T. (2012, April 11). A Tribute to the Bookmobile . The Library History Buff. http://www.libraryhistorybuff.com/bookmobile.htm
Ride and Read on the Sacramento Rolling Library Train. Sacramento Regional Transit District. (2023, July 1). https://www.sacrt.com/apps/ride-and-read-on-the-new-sacramento-rolling-library-train/
@kmg333, Nice post! I love the pics. Biblioburro makes me well up every time. It is so poignant that you end on the aspect of a book mobile as a symbol for the library caring for its community.
There have been a few books over the last years about Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, including Kim Michele Richardson’s “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” & its sequel, “The Book Woman’s Daughter,” as well as Jojo Moyes’s “The Giver of Stars.”
Hi Jeanna,
I was not aware of those titles, but thank you for bringing them to my attention. I will be checking them out
@jeanna So glad you covered this topic. And I really appreciate the stats you share in the last paragraph. It feels like that KY bookmobile service was really playing a vibrant role in the lives of the folks who used it.