Seeing Jim Harris”s Fast Franks cart in the Lakeport Sears parking lot, an idea comes to me. For what else would a cart like this be suitable, aside from the really good hot dogs? My answer: a bookmobile.
The benefit of a bookmobile seems especially evident for Kelseyville and among Soda Bay Road communities, since the area of greater Kelseyville is the only county supervisorial district not served by a branch library. Cobb Mountain communities and the Spring Valley area could also benefit from a bookmobile.
Outlying areas can make use of branch libraries in Clearlake, Lakeport, Upper Lake and Middletown, but for those people who find it difficult to travel, a bookmobile might be just the thing.
My own experience as a library client includes using a bookmobile. When I worked in Bel Marin Keyes, I may have set foot only once or twice in a Marin County Free Library building, but I was a steady visitor on those days twice a month when the Marin County bookmobile parked across the street from my work.
Each week, I pull items from shelves at the Lakeport Library and I prepare them for transportation to designated library branches where a client has requested that an item be sent. The Mendocino County bookmobile is among the options available for users of its county library.
Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland is credited with putting the nation”s first horse-drawn book wagon on the road. The first “Library Wagon” debuted in 1905 in Washington County, Maryland, according to “The Story of the Washington County Free Library” by Mary Lemist Titcomb (Hagerstown, Maryland, Chamber of Commerce, 1951).
Furnished with shelves on the outside and a place for storage in the center, Titcomb described the “Library Wagon” as resembling somewhat of a cross between a grocer”s delivery wagon and the tin peddlers” carts of bygone New England days. “Filled with an attractive collection of books and drawn by two horses, with Mr. Joshua Thomas the janitor both holding the reins and dispensing the books, it started on its travels in April 1905.”
In 1912, Washington County also created the first automotive bookmobile in America: an International Harvester Autowagon with a specially-built body for carrying books.
The American Library Association credits bookmobiles with being “an integral and vital part of library service in the United States for over 100 years.” The bookmobile of today is a mobile information center serving all kinds of communities across the United States.
“The Ten Types of Bookmobile Chassis,” accessed through the ALA Web site, www.ala.org/, lists prices ranging from $30,000 for a van conversion to $150,000 for a flat-face schoolbus or a lightweight tractor-trailer. Given the expenses already faced by our public libraries, a motorized bookmobile is definitely cost-prohibitive.
That”s where my idea of a book cart comes in. West Coast Custom Carts in Salem, Ore., sells carts at costs ranging from $1,000 to $7,000. Equipping the cart with Internet capability to connect it to the library catalog could cost a little more, but I shouldn”t think it very much.
An initial investment of $7,000 could bring library services to Lake County”s outlying communities.
The ALA credits bookmobiles with being a cost-effective method for testing locations for new library branches: so if and when there is discussion of putting a branch library in Kelseyville, library cart usage could feasibly produce valuable information.
For more information about custom hot dog carts, visit www.westcoastcustomcarts.net/. For more information about bookmobiles, visit the ALA Web site, www.ala.org, and select ALA”s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services from its “Offices” drop-down menu.
Cynthia Parkhill is the focus pages editor for the record-Bee and editor of the Clear Lake Observer-American. She can be contacted at ObserverAmerican@gmail.com or 263-5636 ext. 39.
