Bookmobile
Mon., March 25, 05:37 PM
The local newspaper says our bookmobile is in danger of being discontinued. Even though I understand the expense involved in maintaining the service, I can’t see ending it. It would be a tragedy for the readers of the city to lose it.
I guess bookmobiles (or traveling branch, as one library labeled it) were a lot more common before everyone had a car. And maybe they flourished in rural areas rather than in cities. But when this new truck was displayed on the town green a few years ago – replacing one that had been in service for many years – there were people who stopped in to see it because they had never heard of them. (And one of those was a schoolteacher!)
Have you ever seen a bookmobile? It’s a lending library on wheels, usually part of the local public library. Right behind the driver’s and passenger’s seats – which can be turned toward the borrowers when the truck is parked – are counters for checking books in and out. The back of the truck is lined with bookshelves; ours has children’s books on one side and adult books on the other. Accommodating the kind of readers who use the service, it also has a section of large-print books. Most bookmobiles that I’ve seen provide service to local nursing homes, but this particular bookmobile also provides “shut-in service,” bringing books to the homes of readers who can’t come out.
For a long time the bookmobile checked out books the old-fashioned way, stamping them with a rubber stamp and writing in the borrower’s number by hand. Even after the main library was reading the bar codes on the books and cards, the bookmobile didn’t have a scanner. As long-time borrowers know, the advantage of the old system was that you could look for your number on the book card if you couldn’t remember whether you had read that one!
The bookmobile was a staple of our life when my kids were little. We had no car, and the main library was too far for small children to walk. But once a week we trundled our little red wagon down the block to the bookmobile stop (enough books for three children, and for mother as well). Not only did the bookmobile offer books, but it provided a chance to chat with the librarian and the driver, May Stiles and Lee Reed.
Lee passed on a few years ago, and we still miss him. May finally gave in to physical limitations and agreed to work in one of the branches instead of trying to live with the stress of being on the road. But the bookmobile went on; it’s now possible for a single person to drive the truck and keep track of the books.
Because Lee and May were friends of the “regulars,” they would phone us if they couldn’t come – for example, if the weather was too harsh. Twenty-plus years later, I'm not a regular any more, mostly because I can't find the bookmobile, even when I have a schedule. But, being more movable myself now, I can still get books. I'm hoping that the bookmobile continues to provide books to those people who have no other way to get of reading material.
I’ve been involved with libraries almost all my life, ever since I got my first library card in third grade. When I was a child, it was not an uncommon sight to see a teacher leading a line of schoolchildren to the public library, but the city and the PTA soon funded branches of the Children’s Room in all of the elementary schools. As a volunteer in one of those school libraries, I received my first training in library work.
Either as a volunteer or as a paid employee, I have many years of experience in public, school and university libraries. I do know something of how they operate. So permit me to say, I don't understand the philosophy of the people who are running the library these days. Wherever I worked, the primary objective was to serve the readership.
Not only was our library open on Saturdays, we put on extra staff because that's when more people came in. (All branches of our local library are closed on Saturdays during the summer.) We were also open extra hours in the summertime. (The Children’s Room added an extra clerk at low tide, because parents take their kids to the beach at high tide.) More reference room people were scheduled during exam time or term paper time. (Granted, the public library in question was the only one in town, without a college library.)
I've always thought that the concept of a lending library was one of the best ideas our American forefathers had. I’m well aware that libraries traditionally have more funds available for materials than for staff. (Why do you think I didn’t make it my career?) On the other hand, automation has made it possible to check out books faster even with fewer staff people. I don't know all the answers. But I would hate to think that the people of the town were shortchanged because someone couldn’t look at the greater picture.
