Bookmobile brings the library to the rural Basin

MOSES LAKE — It’s a Tuesday afternoon and the library has just rolled in at Doolittle Dream Park, to stay for an hour before moving on. 

“We’ve had as many as 12 or 15 (people come in),” said librarian Elizabeth McNall. “(The Boys and Girls Club of the Columbia Basin) is doing a free lunch here this summer, but our time is not right for them, so we’ll try to coordinate next year with that.” 

This is the North Central Washington Libraries Bookmobile, described as a pop-up library on wheels. Most of the same things you’d find at a regular branch library are there: books, DVDs, magazines and audiobooks. NCW Libraries also host craft projects for children, and the Bookmobile has a little table in the back with the makings for this week’s craft, a butterfly mobile. 

“In a branch (library) they do it as a program, so they'll have a certain time they're doing that activity,” McNall said. “But because we're moving around all the time, we want to give everybody the opportunity to participate in it. We have it out at all of our stops.” 

Most of the Bookmobile’s patrons are children, but a fair number of grown-ups come in as well. Cookbooks are especially popular with adults, McNall said.  

“Cookbooks are very expensive to purchase, and so to be able to look at it from the library is a great way to access a cookbook and see if it's something you do want to purchase,” she said. 

The Bookmobile has the usual children’s fiction, but McNall said that’s not what most of them come in for. 

“Kids love to learn, so we circulate a lot of nonfiction,” she said. “They want to learn about dinosaurs, they want to learn about trains. It’s more popular than our kids’ fiction.” 

People also come into the Bookmobile to renew their library cards so they can access NCW Libraries’ online resources, McNall said. 

McNall and Bookmobile Associate Marco Hernandez rack up a lot of miles. The Bookmobile makes about 15 stops a week in communities across Chelan, Douglas and Grant counties, an area larger than the state of Connecticut. The stop at Doolittle Dream Park is a twice-a-month run; in Grant County, the Bookmobile also comes twice a month to Wilson Creek, Beverly, Crescent Bar and Desert Aire. 

“We try to give access to underprivileged communities or people who might not be able to make it to the library,” Hernandez said. 

There are also private stops at group homes, senior facilities, schools and a homeless shelter in Wenatchee. 

“That's a different kind of scenario,” Hernandez said. “They're experiencing homelessness, but without an official address, they usually wouldn’t be able to check out books. Since they're living there, we give them access to a limited use card so they can still use the resources from the library, and a couple of books are given to them. I feel that it helps out a lot.” 

Hernandez is bilingual, and the Bookmobile has about three shelves of children’s books and two for adults in Spanish. Occasionally, they’ll field requests for books in Ukrainian or Russian, McNall said, and those can be ordered online and sent out on the Bookmobile. Because the Bookmobile is part of NCW Libraries, it has access to the system’s entire collection. And it may even have a leg up on getting the good stuff, McNall said. 

“Our entire library system is a floating collection, meaning that somebody can request it in and then it will stay with us if they return it,” McNall said. “But we have the luxury of (pulling from) returns to our distribution center, because that's where we're based. The mail order library (has its) returns, and those have to be shunted back out to the branches and the Bookmobile, so we're able to sort of cherry-pick off there.” 

McNall and Hernandez try to park the Bookmobile in easy walking distance for as many people as possible, McNall said. In Wilson Creek, it’s in front of Town Hall, and in Desert Aire, it’s at the community pool. Those locations can be changed as needs change, she added. 

“In Beverly, we were having a low turnout at the gas station, so we’ve moved to the fire station, which is closer to the homes,” she said. “We’ve seen people coming out to see what we are and checking it out more than we did at the gas station.” 

The Bookmobile serves a vital function, McNall said, beyond just delivering books. 

“It's taking the library to those populations who feel kind of outside of the norm,” she said, “letting them know that the library is for them and that they can access the materials and the online resources.” 

Grant County Bookmobile stops 

Desert Aire 

2-3 p.m. first and third Mondays 

Desert Aire Pool 

Beverly 

3:30-4:30 p.m. first and third Mondays 

Grant County Fire District 10 station 

Wilson Creek 

2-3 p.m. second and fourth Mondays 

Wilson Creek Town Hall 

Moses Lake Larson Community 

2-3 p.m. second and fourth Tuesdays 

Doolittle Dream Park 

Columbia Basin Job Corps Center 

3:30-4:30 p.m. second and fourth Tuesdays 

(Not open to the public) 

Crescent Bar 

3:30-4:30 p.m. second and fourth Wednesdays 

Crescent Bar Recreation Area 

For more information visit ncwlibraries.org. 

    The Bookmobile offers the same books, movies and other materials as the branch libraries, and can get anything readers request from NCW Libraries online.
  

    The NCW Libraries Bookmobile awaits patrons in the parking lot at Doolittle Dream Park in the Larson Community of Moses Lake. It stops there for an hour twice a month, one of about 15 stops the rolling library makes every week.
  

    In addition to books, the Bookmobile offers the same craft projects the branch libraries do.