Bookmobile numbers are increasing

Bookmobiles are important to rural communities, and getting more important, they've been given their own day. The first National Bookmobile Day is tomorrow, April 14, part of National Library Week.

A typical bookmobile is Bernice. She is the bookmobile that serves Ward County, North Dakota, according to Andrea Johnson in the Minot Daily News. The vehicle was named Bernice because the librarians got tired of having to write down the initials "B.M." for "BookMobile" when referring to the vehicle. "Bernice is so much better. And she’s an older lady, so we tried to pick an older lady’s name," Michelle Demchuk told Johnson.

In 2009, Bernice logged 12,000 miles and  has carried thousands of books. "The farther out, the more they check out,” bookmobile staffer Phyllis Buechler said of her clients. It is a vital service in areas where there isn’t a library or much access to books, the librarians told Johnson. The American Library Association says the number of bookmobiles continues to increase, to more than 930 in 2008, from 825 nationwide in 2005. As the economy suffers, library usage goes up, including mobile services.