Farber bookmobiles are the most cost effective way to expand library services to communities. We offer a full line-up of vehicle bodies and chassis to accommodate everything from lobby-stop service models with mobile carts to traditional on-board browsing service with shelved collections and environmentally controlled climate. We can also provide ADA compliant lifts and technology enablers such as remote wireless hubs and integrated iPad catalogs.
What We DoMobile Outreach brings the library to you!We connect with SF residents where they work, play, create, learn and live. Our team serves people of all ages and abilities throughout the City of San Francisco regardless of physical, economic, social, geographic or other barriers.Mobile Outreach librarians curate a variety of diverse library materials for the communities we visit, and our librarians provide fun and engaging programs.We can be found at schools, early learning centers, senior residences and community day centers.We serve as Treasure Island's only library service. You may also see us at community and cultural events happening year-round.
A history of bookmobiles in America
I’ve had a soft spot for bookmobiles ever since I read 1964’s career romance for young moderns, The Girl on the Bookmobile and learned how much pleasure and knowledge these roving libraries could provide! It was a trimly built van-like conveyance. At the rear, the doors swung open to show a miniature room equipped with …
The German Robi bookmobile is pretty neat: from the outside, it seems like little more than a big blue bus.
For many decades one of the outreach methods used by public libraries all over America has been the bookmobile. These rolling collections brought reading material to both adults and children who often had no way to get to the city or county's public library building. A recent article by Piotr Kowalczyk on the "10 Most Extraordinary Mobile Libraries" describes a variety of moving libraries from around the world. Below are some photographs of bookmobiles that once toured the roads in Alabama. These images come mostly from the digital collections of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. In many the vehicle seems to be parked in front of a school, which often had no library or a poorly stocked one. The photographs seem to date from the 1920's and 1930's. Some city and county public libraries in the state still operate bookmobiles including Baldwin, Huntsville-Madison, Mobile and Tuscaloosa. Two brief pieces on early bookmobiles can be found in the book The Heritage of Jefferson County, Alabama, published in 2002: "Jefferson County Free Library Bookmobile" by James Spotswood and "When the Bookmobile Came to Aunt Ruth's House" by Frances Hulsey Pardue, both on page 211. Some nice photographs of the Tuscaloosa County bookmobile from days past can be found here. This bookmobile was in Anniston. This bookmobile was operated by the Jefferson County Free Library. Here the Jefferson County Free Library bookmobile is parked at the U.S. Post Office at New Castle where women are browsing through the choices. New Castle was a mining town near Fultondale; a post office was established in 1874. Some filming for the 1925 silent movie Coming Through was done here. From the looks of the tree and the women's coats, this visit must have taken place in winter. This photo shows the Jefferson County Bookmobile outside the service entrance to Birmingham Public Library in 1939. Librarian Dorothy West is flanked by two of the bookmobile drivers. This vehicle seems to have been a rolling advertisement for Cullman County's bookmobile. Here's a Montgomery County Bookmobile And finally, a bookmobile in Tuscaloosa County [and finally a grown man!] Jefferson County Bookmobile in front of the Thomas H. McAdory house in Bessemer ca. 1940 An undated photograph of BPL's "Traveling Branch" Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections This "romance for young moderns" was published in 1956.
The Library Services Act of 1956 and government funding in the ’60s enabled public libraries, including some in rural Arkansas, to invest in bookmobiles.
Here are 5 great books about bookmobiles to help you celebrate National Bookmobile Day.
Bibliomulas (book mules) are mule-borne bookmobiles that transport books to remote villages in Venezuela. The project is by the University of Momboy in
In towns not served by brick-and-mortar libraries, a visit from the local bookmobile was once an exciting and frequent event. Now, communities across the US are taking their mobile libraries off the road in order to save money in the face of budget cuts. The move comes just as cost-cutting consumers are ditching credit cards […]
One of the Utah State Library's older bookmobiles.
Rare photos of mobile libraries not only from the United States. Find examples from France, Sweden, Canada, India, Australia, Japan, Italy, Poland, and much more!
Long before Amazon, Audible, and other digital book distributors, bookmobiles were bringing literature to peoples' doorsteps. Their mission was to provide remote villages and city suburbs that had no libraries with books to read. We invite you to remember these almost forgotten four-wheelers of the past.
Our custom mobile library vehicles can help you serve areas that don't have a traditional library. Learn how we can help enhance your community outreach program.
For book lovers, bookmobiles are oddly romantic. They seem like dream-machines, very real automobiles rolling through our lives in an almost impossible
The bookmobile's design is such that once parked, readers could easily access its treasured literary items. Now it's more like a thing of the past, but
Bookmobiles - the wheels are still turning! Utah Bookmobiles, a vital part of rural communities, bring full library service to residents in Garfield, Kane, I...
Bookbinder Lisa Occipinti rescues orphaned books to create her sculptural bookmobiles.
During the Great Depression, a New Deal program brought books to Kentuckians living in remote areas
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