Well, sort of, anyway.
I remember — long, long ago in a neighborhood far, far away — how eagerly we kids awaited the weekly visits by the bookmobile. It was generally a small van loaded with books we could check out and return when the bookmobile returned on subsequent visits. I grew up on and around Air Force bases all over the country, and public libraries were not always nearby. I was an avid reader and belonged to the Science Fiction Book Club but read as many books as I could get my hands on in all sorts of genres, beginning as soon as I had learned to read.
The bookmobile service made it all possible.
I don’t know when it happened, but the bookmobile concept died out a long time ago. As I recall, we had a bookmobile that made the circuit of suburban neighborhoods in 1963 when I lived in Midwest City, OK. But sometime between then and when I graduated from high school (in 1965 in France) or when I graduated from college and had kids of my own, it seemed to have become a notion relegated to history. Maybe it continued in some areas, but not where we lived (all over the country as I was an Air Force officer).
Now, it seems the bookmobile concept has been resurrected, although quite different from its more humble origins.
Library Journal has an online story titled OverDrive’s Digital Bookmobile Kicks Off National Outreach Tour in NYC in which the reporter says:
Yesterday, inside New York City’s Central Park, a crowd gathered outside an 18-wheel tractor-trailer tricked out with broadband Internet-connected PCs, high-definition flat-screen monitors, and all manner of MP3 devices. Owned and operated by digital media distributor OverDrive, the Digital Bookmobile is part of a traveling outreach exhibit aimed to raise awareness of public libraries’ download services.
Apparently, some 300 people checked out this high-tech bookmobile in its inaugural outing in New York City. You can check out the Digital Bookmobile’s schedule of stops on its national tour on the Digital Bookmobile website.
Well, it’s not your grandfather’s bookmobile, but it’s an interesting idea. I suspect it’s a bit too pricey to be useful for individual public libraries nationwide. Personally, I see nothing wrong with the old bookmobile idea using actual printed books. Of course, it would require more staff and, these days, the price of gas could make its operation more costly than the cost of the van itself.
After all, it doesn’t have to be tricked-out 18-wheeler.
