Digital Bookmobile Kicks Off in NY
By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 8/15/2008 10:33:00 AM
Inside New York City’s Central Park, a crowd recently gathered outside an 18-wheel tractor-trailer tricked out with wired 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.
The inaugural event was hosted by the New York Public Library (NYPL), which, through OverDrive and Recorded Books, has for the last few years been providing its patrons with a virtual branch of digital audiobooks, ebooks, music, and videos.
On August 11, the bookmobile traveled to Cunningham Park, Queens, where it showcased the Queens Library’s offerings; followed by Prospect Park, where it was Brooklyn Public Library’s turn. A North American tour is planned through 2009.
NYPL assistant director for children’s programs Margaret Tice, who attended the Central Park event along with about a dozen of her colleagues, told the crowd that the library had circulated 188,000 downloadable items (ebooks, audiobooks, music, and video) last year. In July of this year alone, the library circulated a record-breaking 18,000 items.
About 300 people stopped by the bookmobile throughout the day to explore NYPL’s digital download catalog and sample available titles; by 1:30 p.m., 50 visitors had signed up for library cards. Tice explained that many of the visitors either didn’t know such free material was available from the library or were interested in learning how to download the content onto their own mobile devices.
The next stops on the bookmobile’s national tour are: Boston on August 27, Washington, DC on September 2, and Cleveland on September 27.
