Library on wheels rolls through area
On a typical day, Greater Plymouth Community Center’s community rooms, gyms and pool are full of adults and kids. But when the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library bookmobile shows up — as it’s scheduled to this week — the action expands to the GPCC parking lot.
Not familiar with MCNPL’s traveling books?
GPCC is only one of dozens of stops the service makes in a given year. In fact, Bookmobile and Outreach Services head Thomas Fluharty says MCNPL is “the public library that operates the most bookmobiles in Pennsylvania.” That translates to regularly scheduled visits by four bookmobiles, as well as the library’s Books by Mail program for homebound county residents.
“Two bookmobiles provide mobile branch library services open to the general public at 25 rotating stops in 13 municipalities located within the direct service area of MC-NPL,” Fluharty continues. “Two … provide specialized library outreach services to targeted populations throughout Montgomery County.”
Among the latter, the older adults served by MCNPL’s Words on Wheels program. The WOW bookmobile makes scheduled visits to retirement communities and assisted living facilities throughout the county and specializes in large print and audio books and DVDs — typically, some 2,000 in all. Patrons may reserve items in advance, by phone or online.
At the other end of the age spectrum, MC-NPL’s Books-Go-Round bookmobile is “a first library experience and early emergent literacy outreach program … with a strong focus on serving children from low-income families.” The program began in 1992 with a grant from the William Penn Foundation of Philadelphia and, according to Fluharty, “is partially sustained annually by funds from the County Coordination Aid block grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Commonwealth Libraries, Bureau of Library Development.”
“Currently, the Books-Go-Round program is designed to service 3-, 4- and 5-yearold children attending Head Start, PA Pre-K Counts and other preschool programs in Montgomery County,” he explains. “First service priority is given to Head Start, PA Pre-K Counts and other Title 1 qualifying programs. Non-qualifying preschool and daycare facilities are served … as time and geography limits permit.”
At the moment, BGR is based in a 2005 GMC C5500 truck, converted to a 27foot, kid-friendly gathering place by OBS Specialty Vehicles in Canton, Ohio. Its colorful interior houses some 2,500 books and related items and can accommodate up to 18 preschoolers — and their teachers — on carpeted built-in benches.
“Normally, we allocate 30 minutes to each classroom per visit,” Fluharty says. “Programming always includes a [MC-NPL] staff-led, read-aloud, themed storytime [and] … often includes interactive activities such as puppetry, rhymes, role play, music and movement that complement the theme.”
At the end of each session, students choose and check out books.
“The selected books stay on site in the children’s classrooms until the next scheduled BGR visit,” Fluharty says. “The books are intended to help facilitate both teacher-led read-aloud programming and individual self-directed reading.
“The BGR staff also provides access for classroom teachers to curriculum support materials that are available via the 35 public libraries and four bookmobiles in the Montgomery County Library District. Teachers may request and, then, check out professional development and classroom supplemental materials.”
The library’s BGR program provided service to some 120 classrooms a month and generated BGR bookmobile visits by approximately 17,000 children and teachers during the 2017-18 school year.
“We are entering into our third school year of partnership with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, [and] we continue to service 100 percent of the Head Start and PA Pre-K Counts classrooms administered by MCIU,” Fluharty says.
Although bookmobile service here and elsewhere has been affected by funding ups and downs over the years, the concept has existed in this country since at least the early 20th century when mule and horsedrawn “book wagons” carried reading material to certain rural areas. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, the Works Progress Administration’s “packhorse librarians” delivered books in and around Appalachia, and unique variations on the theme provide books to people in remote spots around the world.
For example, Luis Soriano’s much-lauded Biblioburro in rural Colombia reportedly inspired Zimbabwe’s donkey-powered book deliveries. Elsewhere in Africa, camels carry books to readers in Kenya and Uganda, while elephants do the job in Thailand and Mongolia. Even man-powered rickshaws serve as mobile libraries in India. From fall to early spring, a ship called Epos doubles as a mobile library along the western coast of Norway.
In addition to traditional books, MC-NPL bookmobile patrons of all ages have access to audio and electronic books, magazines, DVDs, CDs and online resources such as Mango Languages, Cyprus Resume, Tumble-Books and Zinio Magazines.
Additional information about services and schedules is available at 610-2785100 or mnl.mclinc.org.