Bookmobile Always Busy
Bookmobile Always Busy
By Mary Wallace
Wednesday afternoon is an event in West Willow. Children from first grade into their teens pour out of every street in the subdivision on tricycles and bicycles or walking to exchange last week’s volumes for new ones at the County Library bookmobile.
Often a mother joins her children to select books and records for her entire family.
This scene is repeated six days a week at the 48 stops made each week by the mobile library in every part of the county.
The traveling library parks at small rural schools, in front of general stores, churches, township halls, in the midst of populous subdivisions and trailer courts and at main intersections of county roads in the less populated areas. It also provides regular service to the county’s Juvenile Detention Home and the County Hospital.
A stimulus for the younger set temporarily from the swimming pool or the baseball diamond to the bookmobile is the summer reading program designed for readers from 5 to 12. Of the nearly 2.500 young readers participating through libraries all over the county, 825 check their books out and record them on special leaflets through the bookmobile.
The youngest readers sit in the narrow aisle looking through some of the 3,300 juvenile books which are graded by age for their use.
Teenage boys present a special problem to the librarian. She can not keep enough books on the shelves to satisfy the demand in the areas of auto mechanics, and repair, drag racing, go-karting and judo.
The interests of bookmobile users parallel those of people served by a central library, according to Mrs. Roberta Dunn, bookmobile librarian.
‘‘With the coming of the appropriate season we stack the shelves to meet the demand for books on gardening, canning, swimming, sailing, water-skiing, skating and skiing, and on bridge and chess according to which YMCA classes are under way at the time,” Mrs. Dunn said.
During the school year the mobile library meets the requests of school children for extra material on their school subjects.
The County Library can never fill the demand for books that make the best-seller list. Mrs. Dunn said, pointing out that she has 18 requests now for “To Kill A Mockingbird,” which has been on the market for more than two years.
In its first year of operation the County Library has shown that there is a countywide desire for regular convenient library service. The bookmobile’s circulation has climbed from 3,514 for its initial two-month period last summer to a high of 9,116 for the month of May alone this year, according to George A. Curtis, library director.
Circulation has remained near this level each month, April through June of this year after a steady climb. An average of 800 phonograph records is also being circulated each month. The county facility has thus far experienced an “amazingly low” loss rate of 2/3 of one per cent, Curtis said.
In addition to direct circulation from the bookmobile, the County Library supplied 433 books on request to the small community libraries in the area during June. It also supplies educational films to groups and individuals throughout the county.
THE ANN ARBOR NEWS Section Four Ann Arbor, Michigan. Thursday, July 25, 1963 Pages 33 to 40
[images]:
There's a book to suit everyone on the bookmobile.
A tale of 'Baa Baa' intrigues Gail Ferguson, 3.
Peter Tryand records his summer reading.
Satisfied customers leave bookmobile.
Young readers at check-out time.