A bookmobile or mobile library is a vehicle designed for use as a library. It is designed to hold books on shelves in such a way that when the vehicle is parked they can be accessed by readers. Mobile libraries are often used to provide library services to villages and city suburbs that have no library buildings. They can also service groups or individuals who have difficulty accessing libraries, for example, occupants of retirement homes. As well as regular books, a bookmobile might also carry large print books, audiobooks, other media, IT equipment, and Internet access.
Inspired by reports of small mobile libraries in 19th-century England, librarian Mary Titcomb launched the first bookmobile in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Titcomb’s goal was to extend the reach of the Washington County Free Library in Maryland by starting a book transport system to rural communities. She developed a horse-drawn library wagon to send boxes of books to nearby general stores and post offices.
As Miss Titcomb noted: “Any account of this first Book Wagon work, the first in the United States would be incomplete without the statement that this method of rural library extension has been adopted in many states in the Union, and that new book wagons are being put in operation each year.”
A very old library bookmobile of America, ca. 1900s
The first bookmobile in the United States, Washington County, Maryland, 1905
By 1904, 66 deposit stations had sprung up to dispense books throughout the county. In 1912, the first motorized bookmobiles were born, and they transported books not only to rural areas, but also to local schools and senior centers.In the early 1900s, a librarian could purchase a bookmobile for as little as $1,000. By the late 1930s, there were as many as 60 bookmobiles nationwide. The Great Depression and two World Wars then sharply curtailed services and bookmobile production around the country.
This automobile to deliver books to rural readers, Washington County, Md., 1912
The library’s bookmobile in Cincinnati, Ohio, ca. 1920s
Bookmobile, Eltingville, Staten Island, ca. 1920
The library’s first bookmobile, 1927c
The LA Public Library’s bookmobile for the sick, 1928
Children led astray by the Bronx Traveling Library, Westchester Square branch, New York, ca. 1930s
The Library’s bookmobile on Compton Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1933
Bronx Bookmobile, 1938
The Library’s bookmobile in Sharonville, 1938
During the boom years of the 1950s, bookmobile production resurged. Many credit the Library Services Act of 1956 for expanding bookmobile services to reach more than 30 million people in smaller rural communities. Additional legislation in the 1960s sparked the renewed popularity of bookmobiles by extending government funding and services to urban areas.
However, rising fuel costs and budget cutbacks in the 1970s and 1980s forced libraries to scale back their bookmobile services. More recently, there was a 20 percent decline in bookmobiles from 1990 to 2003; digital technologies may be a contributing factor.
Missouri State library bookmobile, ca. 1940s
Taking the kids to the bookmobile in Columbia Park, 1940
Library bookmobiles in front of Union Terminal, 1940
The library’s bookmobile in Springdale, 1942
One of the library bookmobiles in Cincinnati, 1948
The Chicago Public Library Bookmobile
The New York Public Library, ca. 1950s
Los Angeles public library bookmobile, 1955
Brooklyn bookmobile
Jefferson County bookmobile, the first bookmobile in Texas
Framingham Public Library Bookmobile, Mass., 1956
Bookmobile of the Los Angeles public library, 1960
