As a new member of the community outreach division at my institution, I’m thinking a lot about the library environment that exists outside the library.

One of the reasons I was so attracted to working on a bookmobile is because I liked the idea of meeting patrons where they are, instead of waiting for them to come to us. I first thought of this idea thanks to a colleague of mine, Caroline Cullinane, back when we both participated in a professional development course on teen mental wellness. While I developed a reader’s advisory plan to make my nonfiction collection more accessible to teens, she developed an outreach plan with a primary goal of reaching teens who had never been to the library before, in addition to meeting teens where they’re at–in this case, public parks during the summer. A key component of her plan was that it allowed teens more autonomy because it created an opportunity for teens to approach the library in a space they are comfortable in and on their own terms. Her primary metric for success was going to be just having a conversation with teens about the library and the services we offer.

Her project has really influenced how I plan to think about bookmobile services. Bookmobiles are a unique hyperlinked environment in that they aren’t dependent on patrons seeking them out–there’s an opportunity for discovery, especially in Manhattan, where so many folks are walking around their neighborhoods. While there are definitely people who pay attention to the bookmobile and seek out its services, there are also a lot of folks who stumble upon the bookmobile. The bookmobile can also feel less intimidating than a brick-and-mortar location, or at the very least, feel less overwhelming. The bookmobile I work in only has room for a collection of about 1,000 books, which is a lot less than even our smallest branch locations. Combine that with two staff members with nothing to do but recommend books and give personalized attention, and the experience feels a lot less daunting.

While these are the things that make the bookmobile environment feel so attractive to me, I’m also fascinated by some of the innovations coming from systems like the San Francisco Public Library, which has a dedicated TechMobile in their bookmobile fleet that offers classes on coding, LEGO robotics, and animation with iPads. In addition to setting up at library branches, they visit after-school programs and summer camps–yet another example of meeting the patrons where they are, instead of asking them to come to us. I think these sorts of expanded environments are going to be vital to the continued success of libraries. After all, people won’t know what we can offer them unless we tell them, and the easiest way to do that is to go out and ‘spread the word’ about our services. The more we can provide services outside of traditional environments, the better equipped we’ll be to stay connected to our communities and adapt to their needs.

References:

Cuillinane, C. (2025, April 16). Sunday at the Park with [Your Local Librarian]. Project proposal. Teen Mental Wellbeing Training. New York Public Library, New York, NY. https://www.nypl.org/sites-drupal/default/files/2025-06/Teen_Well-Being_Example_Cullinane.pdf

Witteveen, A. (2017, April 6). Bookmobiles and beyond: New library services on wheels serve newborns through teens. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/bookmobiles-and-beyond-new-library-services-on-wheels-serve-newborns-through-teens

For about two years, I’ve been working as a Young Adult Specialist, doing all the work of a librarian working with teens. Six months ago, I realized I wasn’t quite in the right place. It’s hard to articulate just why I needed a change, but when I saw a listing for a Bookmobile position in my institution, I realized that’s where I needed to be. Getting the job was truly a shock. And, it meant I had to engage directly with my organization’s new strategic plan, which created a brand new department: Reading and Engagement. This department, which has now existed for 14 days, includes Community Outreach, which now encompasses Bookmobiles.

I saw a Reddit post that described working on a bookmobile as “the last bastion of why many of us got into the field in the first place.” They seemed to be referring to how a Bookmobile is focused on reader’s advisory and more ‘traditional’ library services. As Michael Stephens explores in one section of Wholehearted Librarianship, library staff sometimes feel that a relentless pursuit of technology is at odds with ‘traditional’ library services and meeting community needs. While the Reddit user didn’t elaborate, I can imagine that what they’re getting at with their post is that a Bookmobile is not linked to technology in the same way that our brick and mortar locations are–at least at my job, the Bookmobile has no printing services, let alone a 3D printer.

A Reddit user describing their experience of Bookmobiles.

In “The Necessary Nearness: An Ode to Bookmobiles,” Christian Lauersen describes Bookmobiles as being vital to the establishment of a ‘reading culture,’ one that celebrates literacy and provides communities with direct contact to library professionals. While I can’t dig into the specific language, I do feel I can say that this idea of a ‘reading culture’ is the whole basis of the new ‘Reading and Engagement’ department. There seems to be a feeling that we have gotten away from the core value of literacy within the organization, and that we need to return to that focus. But, going back to Stephens’s Wholehearted Librarianship, digital literacy is just as important to our daily lives now as literacy. So I’m wondering, where does this leave the ‘low-tech’ services of the Bookmobile, which is sometimes a patron’s only connection to the library?

The thing about a ‘hyperlinked library’ is that it is as much about people as it is about technology. Working in an urban community, I’ll be reaching people who have never stepped foot in a library, and maybe have no intention to. I’ll be creating a hyperlink in that way. But another thing about my urban community is that it includes a lot of folks who don’t speak English. While I’m brushing up on my Spanish, I won’t be able to cover every language spoken in Manhattan. And the solution? Google Translate. That’s a two-way street, though, an interaction between people facilitated by technology. Within that two-way street is a small opportunity to create some digital literacy. I look forward to finding more pathways to technology as I continue with this work.

References:

Lauersen, C. (2025, February 5). The necessary nearness – An ode to bookmobiles. The Library Lab. https://christianlauersen.net/2025/02/05/the-necessary-nearness-and-ode-to-bookmobiles/

r/Libraries. (2025, May). bookmobile experiences? would you drive a bookmobile if given the chance? [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Libraries/comments/1kh9f9g/bookmobile_experiences_would_you_drive_a/

Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted Librarianship: Finding hope, inspiration, and balance. ALA Editions.

Hello all!

Something that stuck out to me from our readings was the importance of staff buy-in, and I found myself thinking of how the teen librarians at my workplace might be able to develop a better relationship with the technology that the library has purchased for us to use. So, I came up with a sort of program idea. Looking forward to feedback!

Also here if the embed doesn’t work.

I was raised by CPAs. One of those CPAs, my dad, was a senior vice president of a major trucking company. His office was on the top floor of the corporate headquarters (which was only the fifth floor, because we’re in Arkansas), and it was dramatically nice in a nineties way–dark wood, a grandfather clock, fancy rugs. I interned at the company one summer, and during orientation, the trip to the fifth floor was a big deal–it was even framed to us as if spotting an executive would be like a celebrity sighting. I’d been going to the fifth floor my entire life, and the idea that I should find it deeply prestigious was very confusing.

I tell this story because when I first entered my organization, I didn’t see it as having a ‘fifth floor.’ I didn’t really see it as being a corporate world at all. In a lot of ways, we have captured some of the energy of the ‘hyperlinked organization’ that David Weinberger outlines in the fifth chapter of The Cluetrain Manifesto, especially among the on-the-ground branch workers. One of the things at the heart of the hyperlinked organization, as distilled by Micheal Stephens in a section of Wholehearted Librarianship, is being human–moving away from corporate speak and red tape and focusing on human voice. I have a host of senior librarians that I can reach out to quickly via instant message, which we’re all encouraged to use with each other, and get a wealth of advice that is written in the hallmarks of internet speech. I can think of dozens of people who I feel are hanging out with me in a ‘hyperlinked organization’ of our own making–flattening the hierarchy of years of experience or library size into an exchange of ideas and advice. These are forums where we come up with guerilla solutions, like using a personal Canva account to help our technology function better (if you’re reading this, employer, please recognize that literally everyone is doing this, we don’t have a choice!).

An example of some hyperlinked problem-solving

And that little parenthetical above highlights exactly why I find this topic so compelling–because while to an extent, I’m working in a hyperlinked organization, there are also respects in which I’m not–the desperate need we have for certain technologies and our workarounds could definitely be solved and have definitely been expressed to our own ‘fifth floor’, but have been universally shot down over concerns about what we would do with unlimited access to creative formats. So we do it covertly, as sort of an ‘open secret’ that everyone seems very used to and okay with, but that I find incredibly stressful–what happens if someone decides it’s worth cracking down on this stuff? 

I have never been mystified by the fifth floor, and I can’t seem to muster the reverence I’m supposed to have for it. The Hyperlinked Organization appeals to me because it doesn’t seem to have much reverence for the fifth floor either–it points out the ways in which we are equal when it comes to our work, versus focusing on the mythic qualities often assigned to CEOs. As a child, I never found the fifth floor impressive because the people who worked there were like my dad, who was smart, but wasn’t a god. Now, I have a healthy respect for the ‘fifth floor’ of my organization because I know they have a lot of experience. They aren’t, however, experts at the teens who come into my library: I’m the expert there, whether that expertise is appreciated or not.

Through a rather odd turn of events, I’m now one of the most senior people in my branch. I may not have a private office, but I am definitely on the ‘fifth floor.’ So I’m thinking a lot about how I can bring the ‘hyperlinked organization’ into the work I do with the nine other people in the building–Stephens provides a sort of list in his ‘Hyperlinked Organization’ article, and I’m trying to focus on how I might implement those principles on a small scale. I’m even thinking of how I can bring transparency to the teens, especially when it comes to rules around food (chips? Easy to clean. Melted ice cream? Very difficult!). I have always been fascinated by hierarchies, and the way in which the hyperlinked organization seeks to break them down feels like the future to me–especially as the other young adult librarians and I maximize our illicit Canva use.

References: 

Levine, R., Locke, C., Searls, D., & Weinberger, D. (2009). The Cluetrain Manifesto. Basic Books.

Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted Librarianship. American Library Association.

Hello!

My name is Kameron Ray Morton, and I’m a Young Adult Specialist at a Bronx branch of the New York Public Library. A large part of my job has to do with emerging technologies, so I’m excited to explore that in this class!

Now, as for Party Girl Librarianship…

I was inspired to become a librarian thanks to the movie Party Girl starring Parker Posey. I’ve built my whole librarianship philosophy on that movie, and cite it all the time as the thing that brought me to where I am today. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it! Last I checked, it’s streaming on Hulu.