Outreach in the News!

Tulsa City-County Library was featured in a newspaper article. Tulsa library will go wherever readers are, delivering great readers advisory service and bringing the library to families in neighborhoods and grateful patrons who receive their deliveries at home. Read the full article here:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/lifestyle/article.aspx?subjectID=67&articleID=20080824_67_D1_Suzann81022


Ashland Public Library has posted great photos on Flickr of their very successful Touch A Truck program. Take a look!

The photos of Touch-A-Truck 2008 are finally posted...
www.flickr.com/photos/ashland_public_library/

you can also view the newspaper article at
http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/4223041

Annual Conference Registration Open

Registration is now open for the ABOS Annual Conference. You can find conference sessions, a tentative schedule, and a registration link at
http://www.abos-outreach.org/annual_conference.htm.

New this year: register online and pay by credit card, or generate an invoice to pay by check!

Vavrek Scholarship Available

Check out the ABOS website for information about the new Bernard Vavrek Scholarship, designed to contribute to the education and training of library staff working in the area of bookmobile and outreach services. Deadline for application is September 5, 2008.

http://www.abos-outreach.org/awards.html

More new bookmobiles have arrived or are coming soon!

Jon Worona, Branch Bookmobiles Manager of San Francisco Public Library writes, “In the next fiscal year, we will purchase a new "green" bookmobile with many eco-friendly features.”

“Our new Farber Elf is being built right now.” Joanne White
Monterey Public Library

“We are in the process of finishing specs for a new vehicle.”
Joyce Voss

“We will have a new vehicle this summer.” Kathy Mayo, Outreach Services Manager, Lee County Library System

“We celebrated the Grand Arrival of our new bookmobile April 11 and we've been on the road ever since.”Judy Packer, Manager
Bookmobile Services to Young Children, Wake County Public Libraries

“We took delivery of our Sprinter Book Hauler in February this year, for our new Lobby Stop Service to Assisted Living Facilities, and will be getting our new city Mobile Library in late May. It is a happy Year here in PPLD Mobile Library Land!” Jan Meadows, Mobile Library Services Co-ordinator, Pikes Peak Library District

“We are in the design process of purchasing a new vehicle at this time.” Rich Allen, Bookmobile Supervisor, Jefferson County Public Library

New Bookmobiles and other great outreach news!

We’re getting a 35’ vehicle from Matthews and expect delivery in late June or early July. It’s a rear engine model on a Freightliner chassis – 12.5’ H x 8.5’ W. (It will replace our 40’ bus built in 1991.)

Kathy Mayo, Outreach Services Manager
Lee County Library System


The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System plans to reinstate Bookmobile and Outreach services.

Christina Kaulbach
Bookmobile Librarian
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library

I've Got Morning All In Me

We asked a Head Start class if they were having a good morning and a little boy answered: "I've got morning all in me!"

One other story is about a boy around ten years old who was really embarrassed. He finally said he wanted to know if we had any books about what to say after you say I love you to a girl. They found him a book and the next time he came, they asked him if it worked. He said happily, "Oh yeah!"

Susan Chandler

You Get to Go on the Bookmobile

Second time we went to a specific Headstart, I walked up to the classroom door to do a storytime. A little boy got a disgusted look on his face and asked if he had to go on the bookmobile. I said, "No, you get to go on the bookmobile."
"Is Mr Jim out there?"
"Yes"
"Is Miss Becky out there?"
"Yes"
"Okay, I'll go," as he trudged off into the room.

A month (2 stops) later.
I walk up to the same classroom door to be greeted by the exact same boy. He took one look at me, started to run around the room, yelling, "The bookmobile is here. Put away your toys. She going to read to us."
Ruth Pettibone

Here you go, Grandma!

There were new kids in the class at one of my regular preschool stops.
I gave my usual 'speech' about "everyone gets to choose one book; you'll keep them in the classroom and share them with your friends...." - you know how it goes. The kids, of course, were buzzing around the bus SO excited. The first little guy chose his book, hurried to the counter, plopped it down and said "Here you go, Grandma!"

Willow Gale, Bookmobile Supervisor
Jefferson-Madison Regional Library

Missed the Bookmobile? Go after it!

Two of our faithful patrons of a neighborhood stop just missed the bookmobile one day, so they drove to the library to learn where the bookmobile was right then; left the library and drove to the bookmobile stop.

Dianne Niece
Extension Services Coordinator
Troy-Miami County Public Library

A Bookmobile Early Literacy Story

At a mobile home park we have been seeing a young woman, Amanda, who is staying with her grandmother while in the last few months of her pregnancy. (Long story short, the guy turned out to be a lemon). She had a little girl last week. When I took books to the grandmother this morning she told me a great story. Amanda and her grandmother have been reading aloud to each other for a couple of months, bookmobile books of course. Well the baby recognized both of their voices from the first moments of her life! She turns toward them whenever they speak. At the hospital, the nurses only interested her for a moment and then she once again would seek out the new mama or the grandmother. So here is a literacy tip we can share - not only is it great to read to your baby, it is great to read to your unborn child.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Bookmobile

Something to make you smile. More to come!

For some reason, many of the children in the neighborhood believed that the bookmobile staff lived in the bookmobile. They saw it going to a stop on another day and told their parents "Look they are going to buy groceries!". On a similar note, we had to close the bookmobile down for about a month to have some serious body work done, the children became very concerned that the driver's had been put in jail for speeding (I don't think you could speed in our bookmobile even if you wanted to!).

One bookmobiler told me that with their swivel seats (facing toward the back of the bookmobile) a child asked them how did they drive the unit backwards!!

1.) Most children call us Miss .... or "teacher" if they can't remember our names. I had one preschool boy call me "Library Girl"! (a previously unknown superhero!)
2.) Claudia Zimmerman will appreciate this one!...I had an Amish boy ask me for, what I thought was, "horrors and spooks". Our Amish patrons don't normally read books about ghosts/supernatural, but I happily began showing him various scary and ghost books. He looked at everything I showed him but was non-committal. Finally my volunteer said, "I think he wants horses books!" I still chuckle when I think about that one.
3.) Along those same lines, a boy asked me for "Ricky Ricardo". An unusual request so I said, "You mean like Ricky from I Love Lucy?" He shook his head, "No, Ricky Ricardo". Stumped, I pulled out my Children's Books In Print reference and began to look up Ricky...Aha! "Ricky Ricotta" by Dav Pilkey!

Another Blog

I thought some of you might be interested in another bookmobile blog, Bookmobile 2.0. To quote from blog itself: The Bookmobile of the Library System of Lancaster County- Serving Lancaster County PA for over 65 years.