Bookmobile
A bookmobile is a mobile library that travels to various communities, primarily serving areas that lack easy access to traditional libraries. They are especially beneficial in rural locations and often cater to low-income families, older adults, and children. Historically significant, bookmobiles emerged in the 19th century, with the first known traveling library established in Warrington, England, in the 1850s. The concept has evolved over time, with modern bookmobiles not only providing books but also offering internet access, educational programs, and various media resources. As of 2018, there were 668 bookmobiles in the United States, with Kentucky leading in numbers. Various innovative delivery methods have been employed globally, including the use of animals and bicycles, to reach underserved populations. Bookmobiles play a crucial role in promoting literacy and education in communities that lack library resources, reinforcing their importance in the contemporary landscape of library services. Through initiatives like National Bookmobile Day, efforts continue to highlight and support these vital outreach services.
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Bookmobile
A bookmobile is a library that travels into communities. Many bookmobiles visit rural areas, where people live a long distance from libraries. They often serve the poor,older adults, and children. During the twentieth century, when many libraries were off-limits to minorities, bookmobiles served everyone. Some use motorized vehicles, while others may use bicycles or animals to transport books from place to place. Camels, elephants, and burros are among the animals that help librarians deliver reading materials to isolated communities.
Bookmobiles have changed with the times and with the needs of communities. Many offer much more than reading materials, including programs and Internet access in rural or disadvantaged communities. As of 2018, the United States had 668 bookmobiles. Kentucky, with 73 bookmobiles, had by far the most, while Ohio had 56.
Background
The first known traveling library was established in Warrington, England, in the 1850s. It began as a pushcart, which traveled throughout eight villages. By 1859, the so-called perambulating library was a horse-drawn cart, which distributed about twelve thousand books its first year on the road. At the time, each village had a librarian, and those who wished to borrow books paid a monthly fee.
In the early years of the twentieth century, American librarian Mary Lemist Titcomb wanted to get more books into places where people could access them. She began offering services from the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland, by putting boxes of books in post offices, general stores, and other places in the community. Titcomb was dissatisfied with the limitations of this outreach, however, and decided to do more. In 1905, she established the Library Wagon. She had a horse-drawn wagon built to her specifications. A librarian and the driver—the library's janitor—visited homes across the county, stopping at farms to loan books to readers. In 1912, the library traded the wagon for a motorized vehicle.
Bookmobile availability increased steadily until the Great Depression and the impact of two World Wars hampered libraries financially and slowed the production of vehicles. The Library Services Act of 1956 helped libraries put more bookmobiles on the roads in rural areas, and government financing over the next decade helped increase services. By the 1970s, however, rising fuel costs hit bookmobiles hard. Their numbers dwindled until about 2003, when they again experienced a surge in popularity.
Traveling libraries of many varieties have been established around the world. The Madras Library Association founded the first mobile library in southern Asia in India in 1931. Librarian S. R. Ranganathan, who wanted to encourage education, used a two-wheeled cart to deliver books to the rural poor.
Topic Today
More than a century after Titcomb established her traveling library, Washington County Free Library bookmobiles still serve schools, senior citizen centers, and other locations in the county. Elsewhere around the world, mobile libraries are important to the future of library systems.
Although some people today question the need for libraries, and even the value of printed books, many areas and populations are underserved by libraries. Rural communities often do not have libraries. While digital books are increasingly available, poor people and those in distant areas often do not have Internet access or devices on which they can read digital books. The Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services, affiliated with the American Library Association, works to encourage government officials, library administrators, and others to support library outreach services, in particular bookmobiles. The organization promotes outreach, including services, for those in underserved communities. The Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services, the American Library Association's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, and the Association for Rural & Small Libraries have held National Bookmobile Day on the Wednesday of National Library Week since 2010.
In the twenty-first century, bookmobiles commonly visit schools, day care centers, hospitals, homes, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. Bookmobiles now provide a wider range of services. They offer newspapers, periodicals, reference materials, job-search resources, and media, including DVDs. Some mobile libraries also bring classes, programs, and story times to their users and offer computers with Internet access, e-readers and other adaptive technology, video game systems, and educational software, among other services. To reflect these changes, some have taken to calling themselves technomobiles or cybermobiles. Some libraries have branches on wheels that are specifically geared toward particular audiences, such as children.
Around the world, librarians have taken innovative approaches to getting books to readers. Thai readers are served by elephant-drawn libraries. In western Norway, small coastal communities are served by the Epos, a book boat that has delivered six thousand volumes since 1963. Camel library services in Kenya and Uganda deliver books to remote areas.
In some cases, private individuals have taken it upon themselves to provide library services to disadvantaged communities. A journalist in Indonesia launched a book boat service in 2015. He used his own funds and donations to buy the boat and stock it with nearly four thousand books for children. He piloted the small sailing vessel between tiny islands, on trips that could take as long as twenty days. Muhammad Ridwan Alimuddin also serves his local library, using a motorbike, rickshaw, and ATV to transport books by land.
During the 1990s, Luis Soriano, a primary school teacher in Magdalena, Colombia, realized his young students had few books and little access to education or reading materials. He began hauling one hundred and twenty books on a pair of donkeys named Alfa and Beto. Twice a week, the biblioburro delivers books to children in fifteen remote villages, where youngsters may walk up to forty minutes to the nearest school.
Sustainability is important to many library systems and the communities they serve. Many modern bookmobiles are green, relying on electricity and other renewable energy resources. Even solar panels have been incorporated into eco-friendly outreach vehicles. Some, such as the Books on Bikes trailers in Seattle, Washington, rely on pedal power. The Seattle Public Library uses the bicycles and three trailers for community events, where they help individuals sign up for library cards, download digital books, and learn about other services provided by the library system.
Bookmobiles can be cost-effective ways to increase the scope of a library or to add a library to a community with few resources. A bookmobile, on average, costs about $200,000 a year, according to the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services. Construction of a new library building may cost millions of dollars, making bookmobiles a practical consideration in many cases. As librarians focus on outreach, bookmobiles of various types have become increasingly important.
Bibliography
“Biblioburro: The Amazing Donkey Libraries of Colombia.” BBC, 11 Apr. 2018, www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180410-biblioburro-the-amazing-donkey-libraries-of-colombia. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.
"The Bookmobile Collection." WHILBR, Western Maryland's Historical Library, www.whilbr.org/bookmobile/index.aspx. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.
“Bookmobiles in the U.S.” American Library Association, www.ala.org/tools/research/librarystats/public/bookmobiles/bookmobilesu. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.
Du, Yunfei. Small Libraries, Big Impact: How to Better Serve Your Community in the Digital Age. ABC-CLIO, 2016.
Greenwald, Jeff. "Long Overdue, the Bookmobile Is Back." Smithsonian, 23 Feb. 2011, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/long-overdue-the-bookmobile-is-back-353143/?no-ist. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.
"Perambulating Library." Mealsgate, the George Moore Connection, www.mealsgate.org.uk/perambulating-library.php. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.
Spitzer, Gabriel. “’Books on Bikes’ Helps Seattle Librarians Pedal to the Masses.” NPR, 11 Aug. 2013, www.npr.org/2013/08/11/210248982/books-on-bikes-helps-seattle-librarians-pedal-to-the-masses#:~:text=Weekend%20Edition%20Sunday-,'Books%20On%20Bikes'%20Helps%20Seattle%20Librarians%20Pedal%20To%20The%20Masses,program%20that%20does%20just%20that. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.
Sutcliffe, Theodora. "A Library That Brings Books by Sailboat." BBC, 21 Oct. 2016, www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161013-a-library-that-brings-books-by-sailboat. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.
Warburton, Bob. "Delivering the Library." Library Journal, 26 Sept. 2013, www.libraryjournal.com/story/delivering-the-library. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.