What are your best and most popular ideas for bookmobiles?
March 30, 2016 5:15 PM   Subscribe

I'm interviewing for a supervisor position with the bookmobile in a nearby city. It's been re-launched in the last year or so, and they have a staff of 5. I love bookmobiles but I haven't worked on one. What are your best ideas for programming and outreach? What are the coolest things you've seen bookmobiles do?

Bonus points for interview tips!
posted by percor to Education (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I would love a bookmobile to come to my local playground with books for kids and coffee for parents. Basically I'd organize my day around it. Bonus points if a librarian did a story time.
posted by Toddles at 5:19 PM on March 30, 2016 [6 favorites]


I can go online in my library system's catalog and ask for particular books or movies to be "reserved" to the Bookmobile for me. Then when the Bookmobile comes to my neighborhood once every two weeks, I can just go pick up the specific book/movie I ordered. (They have a shelf of reserves with last names on them, you just go find yours.) This made the Bookmobile pretty much my ONLY library stop because I could get anything I wanted delivered to two blocks from my house.

Our Bookmobile visits a) churches/day cares/schools ideally at a time when children are there and can go to the Bookmobile and b) neighborhoods where children or the elderly cannot safely walk to a library branch without having to cross a dangerous road. I think the second point is underappreciated; it really means EVERY neighborhood in my city has a neighborhood library (and the patrons I see at the Bookmobile the most often ARE, in fact, the elderly on foot, moms with children under 5 usually on foot with strollers, and unaccompanied elementary schoolers often on bikes).

Also your community probably has some kind of "touch a truck" even where they bring together a bunch of different community vehicles (police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, big rigs, buses) and little kids who are truck-crazy can explore them all ... the bookmobile is always a hero at this event, kids are fascinated by a BUS full of BOOKS.

I get text alerts for changes in Bookmobile service, which is helpful as on Bookmobile days we plan our whole day around it. So it's good to know quickly if it's too snowy or the Bookmobile is delayed or there's a breakdown or a schedule change.

I got hooked on the Bookmobile, btw, when I had a tiny baby and going anywhere in the car was a giant hassle, but walking a few blocks with a baby carrier or stroller was a pleasant outing. Then when I had a toddler and a second baby, it was a LIFESAVER because taking TWO in the car to the library was a nightmare but, again, walking to the Bookmobile and back was a nice outing and the toddler would get super-excited about the truck and the books. Also people are a lot less-fussed about a cranky baby when you're at the Bookmobile than when you're at the library disturbing people trying to study. So that might be a demographic to target.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:59 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


We had one in Vermont where the driver (who was an AmeriCorps person) brought her cello along and would play at the various stops while they were there, weather permitting.

It's pretty easy to do some location-aware stuff about where the Bookmobile is and you can do it just with a mobile device, nothing tricky. Having a bookmobile with decent wireless on it so that people in low-internet areas could do software updates? Huge! Likewise being somewhere there was an outdoor event (festivals? ComicCon, I don't know) and being outside with a big CHARGING TABLE for people's devices, also helpful.

Fold out furniture for coloring tables so that some kids (or parents) can color while others are looking at the stuff. Fun driver outfits. A little printer so that people can have you print a thing for them. Printed schedule for when they're going to be where that you try to stick to. Some little part of the thing that is just a whiteboard so kids (or parents) can draw something on the wall for that "trip"

Biggest thing, to me is being flexible about people when you interact with them but also trying to stick to a routine. I'm of the opinion that the bookmobile should be as much of a mobile LIBRARY as possible, not just a book delivery service, so if the library has a scanner, put one on the bookmobile and offer to scan a few photos and do mini-programs like that. 3d printer (if you're library is in to that, some aren't) also good.Newspapers? Yes. Magazines. Sure. Little booksale area? Yes. Animal puppets? Them too. I mean you have to find ways to keep it all together, but there are a lot of great bookmobiles doing really great stuff and figuring out what makes the most sense for your community is going to be the big deal, maybe your library has some published stuff about what the bookmobile USED to do before it was cut and you could get some pointers from that, check old local newspapers, that sort of thing. best of luck!
posted by jessamyn at 6:18 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


This isn't a bookmobile - but it's so much of what folks are saying above! It might give you some ideas: Marrickville Council Magic Bus.

When my grandfather was in a nursing home he got the bookmobile to come! Hospitals, in patient centres, group homes, assisted living facilities, day programs, etc... All of these folks need access but have trouble getting out.
posted by jrobin276 at 12:26 AM on March 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Libraries often have a JP once in a while. I imagine getting a JP to ride the bookmobile once in a while would be huge for some populations.
posted by jrobin276 at 12:29 AM on March 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Storytime and bookmobile at a farmer's market would be awesome.

Tie in to the Summer Reading Program if you can, and have things for kids, teens & adults (if you do SRPs at all levels). This year's theme (if your library/system is part of the CSLP) is sports & movement based ("On Your Mark, Get Set, Read" for kids, "Get in the Game: Read" for teens, and "Exercise Your Mind: Read" for adults), so something along those lines would be great: dance with live music? Yoga? Martial Arts instruction?
posted by carrioncomfort at 7:32 AM on March 31, 2016


Riffing off toodles idea (and I so agree I'd plan my day around it) ..I was thinking of a farmer's market too, and maybe organizing with a food truck or ice cream truck (on preview what carrion.. said).

Perhaps you could coordinate with a nursing home with a big common area or the local senior center. Parents can bring the kids to get books, story time in the common room, older folks can get books and get hang with the kids for a while.

Perhaps the bookmobile could take magazine/book donations and those could be left at the senior center/nursing home.

Many cities have weekly concerts. I'd consider that a worthy spot to visit.
posted by ReluctantViking at 8:28 AM on March 31, 2016


Schedule appearances at festivals and fairs and farmer's markets and such, and schedule regular visits to places that house a lot of people with transportation or mobility issues (in my community, this might include e.g. hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, job placement centers, subsidized apartment complexes, schools, shelters, the main bus terminal, etc.)

Partner with other people who have trucks and drive them places (in my community, this would include e.g. hospitals with mobile testing facilities, animal-adoption trucks, food trucks, and the state parks' mobile aquarium), then develop your own truck-focused events in the parking lots of your brick-and-mortar libraries.

If the library circulates things other than books, try to make sure they're also at least sometimes included. If not a JP, a notary public might make another good ride-along.

Mobile wifi, location-aware stuff, and a charging table are all great ideas.

A little further afield: Partner with a place that does vocational education, then have them give the bookmobile, like, monster-truck tires, a fancy new paint job, and a competition-quality stereo. Document this process heavily on social media, then have a community contest/vote/whatnot to name the new-old bookmobile. After you build followers, continue to use social media to highlight programs and collections, point to other kinds of bookmobiles (bikes, boats, burros!), etc.
posted by box at 10:39 AM on March 31, 2016


A little further afield: Partner with a place that does vocational education, then have them give the bookmobile, like, monster-truck tires, a fancy new paint job, and a competition-quality stereo. Document this process heavily on social media, then have a community contest/vote/whatnot to name the new-old bookmobile. After you build followers, continue to use social media to highlight programs and collections, point to other kinds of bookmobiles (bikes, boats, burros!), etc.

That would be awesome.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:20 AM on March 31, 2016


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