Meet 'the bookmobile lady'—April 9, 2010
Some readers may recognize the picture attached to this column because they see the face every two weeks. It might be at their school, daycare, neighborhood or long term care facility. This is because I’m more commonly known as “the bookmobile lady.” I thought it would be fitting to write about the mobile branch in which I “live” many hours each week.
Bookmobiles themselves have been around for over 100 years, providing integral outreach service to those who cannot otherwise take advantage of going to the library. This includes stops in urban as well as rural areas regardless of the socioeconomic background of its users.
According to the American Library Association, during the current tough economic times bookmobiles are seeing their usage go up. One of the first places that people cut from their budgets is often entertainment. Where else can you rent movies and books for free?
They are even known as “green vehicles” because, instead of several vehicles making trips to the library, there is only one vehicle driving around making stops. And, of course, bookmobiles are being made more fuel efficient as well.
One of several stories written about bookmobiles is “Wild About Books” by Judy Sierra and illustrated by the famous Marc Brown. This particular bookmobile visits the zoo and is written in rhyme.
Another picture book about a bookmobile is a Golden Sower nominee for 2011. It is called “That Book Woman.” This bookmobile is actually a woman on horseback who visits rural settlers with books in her saddlebags.
If you’re in the holiday mood, try “Hannah’s Bookmobile Christmas.” In this story, Blue Bird the bookmobile is a place of shelter for Hannah, the bookmobile librarian and Dickens the cat.
For the older reader, “Mystery of the Bewitched Bookmobile” by Florence Parry Heide and Roxanne Heide finds the Spotlight Club investigating why someone has been breaking into the bookmobile but taking nothing.
In conjunction with National Library Week, we will be celebrating the first National Bookmobile Day and our 44th anniversary of serving Adams County with an open house on the vehicle. On April 14th between 3:30 and 5:50, it will be parked in front of the library and everyone is invited to come on board for refreshments. We’d love to see you there and anywhere you see the bookmobile stopped! If you are interested in hosting a bookmobile stop, please give the library a call at 461-2346.
