The Mock Turtle tells Alice how he went to school in the sea, taking courses like Reeling and Writhing and Fainting in Coils. He means these to relate to Alice’s own lessons of Reading and Writing and Painting in Oils. Likewise, I blog while walking the shoreline between the humanity of art and the science of information. bookmobile
April 11 was National Bookmobile Day. Yes, really. I feel I’d take the opportunity to express my lifelong dream of having a bookmobile.
Or biblio-donkey.
Camel bookmobile in Kenya via Street Use
Or biblio-camel, as I discovered via ALA’s Pinterest.
It is such a simple reward of providing reading material to those geographically removed from libraries or physically unable to visit. For all the necessary services libraries, particularly public libraries, provide, I think there is something wonderfully sweet and potentially life-altering reading a book, propped between your own hands while sitting in your own home.
Wading to the Bookmobile via the Library of Virginia
To celebrate, here is a collection of links of bookmobile goodness:
The Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services holds annual conferences.
Musician turned film-maker Tom Corwin is working on a documentary, Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile. His website is a generally terrific source for all this books-on-wheels.
John Amundsen’s article for American Libraries, Bookmobiles: A Proud History: A Promising Future, is a nice tribute. For more articles, Google News (for the keyword bookmobile) demonstrates that the bookmobiles are still going strong and a necessary part of library services and access.
Awesomeness from Amsterdam; this one travels to schools with over 7,000 books!
Larry Nix, aka Library History Buff, created a Tribute to the Bookmobile.
Bookmobiles Parnassus on Wheels Flickr page for some images of the books on wheels, old and new.
If you haven’t read The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger, please borrow the copy from your local library!
theChive writes about artist Raul Lemesoff’s Weapon of Mass Instruction, probably my favorite bookmobile of all time.
Weapon of Mass Instruction via theChive