On the Road Again

The Nolichucky Regional Library (NRL) in eastern Tennessee, for example, recently had three bookmobiles, but because state vehicles can't be older than three years—these were about 16 years old—the state decided to retire them, and they won't be replaced. "What they were originally intended for—serving rural areas—isn't being done much anymore," says Barbara Earnest, NRL's outreach services coordinator. In a few places, though, bookmobiles are making a comeback and sporting some new features, including Internet access and physical extensions that allow users to sit down and read or listen to a story.

Do we need a new generation of bookmobiles? Today's patrons are more likely to be living in the suburbs than out in the country, and their busy schedules often conflict with the limited hours a bookmobile stops in one place—typically an hour or two a week. But there's still an important audience to be served by a library on wheels: kids, seniors, and low-income residents.

The Explorer of the Pierce County (WA) Library (PCL) is a good example of this new generation of bookmobiles. It brings to local children, teens, and adults nearly 3,000 books, including picture books, chapter books, and parenting and homework titles. And it has something unique—a slide-out section, like those available on deluxe-model recreational vehicles, that adds another 16 square feet to the brightly painted, 36-foot-long, 8-foot-wide vehicle. The slide-out section allows for a reference/circulation desk and two PCs that offer CD-ROM learning games (but no Internet yet; satellite Net access is tricky in mountainous areas like Puget Sound). And there's room in the back of the Explorer for up to 18 children to join a storytime session. "We want the kids to get a 'branch-like' experience no matter where they are," says Caitlin Dixon, PCL's youth outreach librarian.

Dixon says that with so many parents working full time and so many children, especially those in lower-income families, in child-care centers, thousands of kids aren't being taken to the library, so the library needs to come to them. "This was a new population of youth we weren't prepared for," Dixon says. "Frequently they had never used a public library before, and they didn't really understand the concept of borrowing books."

Nearby King County Library System (KCLS) did a 2002 survey of county child-care centers, which revealed a great need for library service. More than 55 percent of child-care staff had not visited a library branch with the kids in their care in more than six months, and when asked why they hadn't, the overwhelming answer was transportation. "It was an alert that we needed to do something about getting these kids access to books, music, and videos," says Sally Porter, KCLS's former youth services coordinator. "People have lots of access to technology in this area, but what adults really want is for kids to have access to books." So KCLS is launching the ABC Express, one of the system's two bookmobiles with satellite-dish–based Internet access, in November. The first, the TechLab, has been in operation for two years now, visiting senior centers and facilities serving lower-income and non-English–speaking youth and adults.

These 21st-century bookmobiles are making an impression. Dixon says that a high-school student climbed aboard the Explorer to find something to read. As he left, books under his arm, he was heard to say to another student, "They sure didn't have bookmobiles like this when I was a kid."