Celebrate National Bookmobile Day

Seatle Public Library Bookmobile

Today is National Bookmobile Day! Part of National Library Week, it is an opportunity to support your local library's outreach services. As a child, I was fortunate to live near an excellent public library. Still, nothing compared to climbing the stairs onto the bookmobile when it arrived in my neighborhood. I could think of nothing cooler than a library on wheels.

For communities that are difficult to reach by vehicle, providing library services is a challenge. In Kenya, the Camel Mobile Library was created to improve literacy in rural areas.

Kenya National Library Service's Camel Mobile Library

Another exciting version is OverDrive's Digital Bookmobile. It offers public libraries the opportunity to promote eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video that are available for download. Currently on national tour, it will be in Olympia at the Timberland Regional Library on Friday, May 4. Even without the OverDrive Digital Bookmobile demonstration, you can download OverDrive and other e-books from your local public library – for instance, Seattle Public Library or the King County Library System.

Learn more about bookmobiles here from the American Library Association.

photo credits: Seattle Public Library, BBC News