Why mobile libraries?
- Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services provide a place for rural or remote communities to gather. People enjoy coming together to commune. By acting as a place for human connection, Mobile libraries proffer a community to connect with
each other, share stories, and be a social gathering place. This is especially important in rural, isolated places where the opportunity to connect with others is limited.
- Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services provide rural and remote patrons with the same one-on-one services offered in brick and mortar libraries. Even with the advent of the Internet, the immense popularity of e-books and online library
services, human interaction and instruction remains the greatest form of customer service. The human animal yearns for physical connection over digital abstraction.
- Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services provide access to technology. In many rural or impoverished communities, technology may be spotty, outdated, or even nonexistent. Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services provide access to
technology in the form of hardware, hotspots, Wi-Fi, iPads, laptops, and/or software to name a few. Recently, Patti, the BPL’s Bookmobile Librarian, shared a story of how a child, who had recently received a robot for his birthday, used
the bookmobile’s laptop computer to update the robot’s software because the computer he had at home was unable to support the robot’s software.
- Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services help to supplement rural schools through its collection, technology, personnel expertise, and services. Many rural schools have a limited library. In some cases, rural schools served by the BPL
do not have a school librarian or are severely hampered by budget restrictions. Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services allow for these rural schools to use the public library’s collection to enhance education, spread the joy or
reading, increase access and exposure to technology, and install the love of life-long learning.
- Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services provide access to information about the plethora of other aspects and services a library provides to a community. Information about adult programs, children’s programs, teen programs, and special
events is easily shared to those without access to the Internet or a library’s website. Additionally, in some cases, programming conducted at the brick and mortar library can be altered in order to be shared at these rural or remote locations.
- Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services have access to the library’s entire collection of resources. Although a bookmobile or mobile outreach service vehicle may be limited to the number of titles on hand, or the type of technology equipped
on the vehicle, they have the capacity to bring these resources to rural or remote patrons. By developing relationships with rural or remote patrons, and by understanding the needs of these patrons, Mobile libraries and mobile outreach
services can customize or curate specific collections for patrons.
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Mobile libraries and mobile outreach services create relationships and promote inclusivity. Patrons who are unable to access a brick and mortar library can sometimes feel as if they are excluded from library services. By creating relationships, and thus
striving for inclusivity, libraries are able to better understand the needs of a rural population, incorporate their voice within strategic planning, increase program development, increase access and exposure to technology, and ensure
quality service to all.
Set up your own mobile zine library
- Step 1
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Step 2
- Step 2.1
- Step 2.2
- Step 3
A mobile unit of the central library in Dhaka