Week 15 Prompt - Mugg
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| The SECOND Bookmobile Used in the United States-1916-Plainfield, Indiana |
https://bookmobiles.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/americans-2nd-bookmobile/ "Plainfield’s “Auto-Book-Wagon,” 1916.
Courtesy of the Indiana Room; Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library.
Plainfield, Indiana, is most likely the sight of America’s second bookmobile. In 1909 Plainfield librarian Mayme C. Snipes set up a series of deposit stations in the surrounding area, boxes of books mostly kept in schools. In her 1915 annual report she voiced concern that while the deposit station network helped, only 25 percent of rural patrons had access to books."
Week 15 Prompt
Class Prompt for this Week - "What do you think are the best ways to market your library's fiction collection? Name and describe three ways you do or would like to market your library or your future library's fiction. These can be tools, programs, services, displays - anything that you see as getting the word out."
Well ~ Whatever happened to the Bookmobiles? Plainfield, Indiana had the second bookmobile ever put into service in the United States. We have none here in Indianapolis no longer? We should incorporate a solar powered bookmobile or one powered by the pedaling of the patrons, especially a bookmobile specifically for children. According to the ALA, Diversity, Literacy and Outreach services are what "drives activities around (these) three professional issues which collectively support equity and inclusion as fundamental values of the association." Bookmobiles are what I still remember as a child getting books to me that I could read during the summer especially. If we do not have funding for these at any other time, you would think we would have them in the summer definitively! April 15th was BookMobile Day. - ALA
Below is a bike bookmobile used by the library in the City of Omaha, Nebraska. This would be so great to have along the Cultural Trail and maybe the Pacers could be a backer of said bike bookmobile? All we need is one of their bikes (tax write-off) and we could get a bike trailer from one of the more popular bike supply shops in town and voila we have the first Cultural Trail BookMobile Bike!
And, I'll tell you the truth, I wish, just ONE DAY a month, the library would provide service through the post office where we could put our books for return and delivery out in a Library Container and exchange books that way. It would be so great for those who do not have transportation (or funds for gas) for pleasure trips to the library. I do not think Indianapolis is aware of how great the community of non-drivers are in Indianapolis.
People nowadays suffer greatly from shortened attention spans. I think a TV or one of those digital picture frames (below is an example of a homemade 19' screen one) would be great for promoting what a specific library or it's branch is doing that month or week. Pretend you are seeing the Book Club's monthly selection here, then the Reading List for April, or the Author Speaker of the Month, well, you get the idea.
Also, every library I have spent time checking the code of their Web site, not one of them has had code that search engines will pick up and advertise the library, it's locations or it's events. It is a small code, called metatags and goes above the <head> html code in the Web site. http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_head.asp.
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="description" content="Rustic Scholar's Reader's Advisory Blog>
<meta name="keywords" content="Rustic Scholar, Reader's Advisory, Blog, Graduate LIS, Library, IUPUI">
<meta name="author" content="Juanita Mugg">
</head>
Those are a few of the things I would suggest to help libraries to be a little more current with the patrons of our communities.
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| Omaha, Nebraska Bookmobile Bike -2014 |
http://www.omaha.com/living/omaha-public-library-debuts-book-bike-a-library-on-wheels/article_cba71614-1ce7-11e4-ba7b-001a4bcf6878.html
"Omaha now has a library with handlebars.
Today Omaha Public Library debuted its book bike, a long blue bicycle with a trailer of books in tow. The bike’s a variation on a traditional bookmobile. Its trailer is stocked with with books to borrow and take, with iPads so people can sign up for library cards, download e-books and learn about other services."
I completely agree about Bookmobiles. I remember having one come through my neighborhood/my friends' houses and how exciting it was to see it! I noticed that there's a new initiative in Carmel to have a bookmobile -- they're hiring 4 positions to support it so I am pretty sure it's going to be a full-time affair, which is great - they can financially support that. It would be nice if more libraries with rural or underserved populations had the funds to both get a bookmobile and staff it so that community members can be served.
ReplyDeleteBut in the interim, I like the idea of the exchange through the mail! I've never seen that done but I think it could be great.
Thanks for all your comments. In regards to the through the mail library service - I have seen the libraries do the box service intra-library - it would be nice to expand it ~
DeleteI'm sad that bookmobiles are fading away. It seems like such a great idea! I think it's nice to go out into the neighborhoods, but I do understand the cost factor. Niles District Library in Michigan recently introduced a book wagon last year. They used donated books and went around the neighborhood reaching out to kids that might not have library cards or are not able to walk as far as the library. I think it opens up the door to great one-on-one interactions.
ReplyDeleteI'm sad that bookmobiles are fading away. It seems like such a great idea! I think it's nice to go out into the neighborhoods, but I do understand the cost factor. Niles District Library in Michigan recently introduced a book wagon last year. They used donated books and went around the neighborhood reaching out to kids that might not have library cards or are not able to walk as far as the library. I think it opens up the door to great one-on-one interactions.
ReplyDeleteBookmobiles are great & I believe they are a vital outreach tool. If the library system does not have a bookmobile, it is imperative that the library have a home-bound delivery program in place, anything less is unacceptable...
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, we had a bookmobile that came once a week. It was such an amazing adventure to climb the steps and discover the library inside. They eventually built a branch for our neighborhood, and the bookmobile stopped coming. I loved the branch library, but missed the bookmobile!
ReplyDelete