The essence of a successful library is one that serves its community well.But what about those places that are hard to get to and where it is to costly to build a library?That's where the bookmobile or mobile library comes in and this one might just take the cake.The Biebbus was specially designed for the people of the densely populated and difficult to navigate Zaan region of the Amsterdam metro area by architect Jord den Hollander.It consists of a refurbished shipping container that pops up to provide two rooms, one for the 7,000 books it carries and one for the...
The Argentine Book Tank: Bookmobile for the 21st Century?
Meet my new hero.Raul Lemesoff, an Argentine art-car artist, has taken a 1979 Ford Falcon that used to belong to the Argentine armed forces and turned into a 'Weapon of Mass Instruction.'Armed with 900 or so books Lemesoff travels the streets of Buenos Aires and beyond offering free books to all.He sees his 'Weapon of Mass Instruction' as a "contribution to peace through literature."Lemesoff has traveled throughout Argentina including remote parts where "literature cannot be found"His goal is to build new 'Weapons of Mass Instruction' all around the world.Just think of all those tanks he could transform if the world...
Biblioburro: Bookmobile Hoofs Books to Rural Nooks
When hundreds of children in the "abandoned regions" of the Colombian state of Magdalena need reading material, a small fleet of bookmobiles makes an arduous trek to provide it. The bookmobiles in question are Alfa and Beto, two donkeys who stubbornly insist that illiteracy is a national enemy and that kids need books no matter how poor or remotely located their village.Luis Soriano, 38, is a primary school teacher living in La Gloria, Columbia. His personal glory is as mule-team driver, leading Alfa and Beto to their destinations in rural Columbia as they tote up to 120 books to children...
The Rebirth of a Bookmobile
It started innocently enough. Over dinner a friend mentioned that he saw a used bookmobile for sale on Craigslist and wished he could by it.That was all the impetus Tom Corwin needed, "By the end of dinner, I had come up with this whole concept of buying the bookmobile myself, and having authors join me, taking turns behind the wheel, and driving across the country interviewing people about the books that have touched their lives and creating a documentary film and a Web-based literacy outreach component" Corwin told the San Francisco Chronicle.He was soon off to suburban Chicago to buy...