Another bookmobile for Iowa City a go

IOWA CITY - Iowa City soon will be home to half the bookmobiles in the state, after city officials Tuesday released the money for a mobile public library that will compete with the non-profit Antelope Lending Library.

Cassandra Elton, founder and director of the Antelope Lending Library, said her 4-year-old mobile library is one of just three in the state. By next spring, it will be one of four, with the opening of the Iowa City Public Library's bookmobile.

The Iowa City Council on Tuesday night released $60,696 in funding for the public library's project.

Earlier this year, the City Council had raised concerns about how another bookmobile might affect Antelope. The council delayed the new bookmobile's funding until after the city manager's office could facilitate discussions and collaboration between the two libraries.

Kara Logsden, Iowa City Public Library's community and access service coordinator, said Iowa City was the busiest and largest library in the state without an additional branch or mobile library.

She said after community surveys and focus groups determined the community wanted more interaction, the library determined a bookmobile was the most 'cost-effective way” to extend its services.

'A bookmobile made a lot of sense. It's very expensive to build a bricks-and-mortar branch,” Logsden said.

She also said discussions between the public library and Antelope included ways to ensure the bookmobiles wouldn't be in the same place at the same time and ideas for potential collaboration. She highlighted a National Bookmobile Day celebration and potential joint programming and fundraising as possibilities for partnership.

Despite the discussions, Elton expressed concerns about a second bookmobile in the city. She said that while the public library is 'doing a lot of things right,” she is frustrated because it has not been specific about its plans for next summer.

Elton said her bookmobile knows 'exactly where we're going to go, exactly who we're going to partner with and exactly what we're going to do.”

Despite her concern, Elton said the two organizations always can do more to reach out to the community and serve everyone. As part of this, both bookmobiles have an emphasis on multiple languages.

Elton said the Antelope Lending Library has bilingual volunteers and literacy programming as well as books in other languages.

Logsden said the public library used census data to identify languages that are commonly spoken in Iowa City households and will alter the shelf carts inside the bookmobile to best fit each stop.

In addition to the interchangeable shelves, the library wants the vehicle to hold about 4,000 books, be handicap-accessible, and have two doors and a computer system for checking out books.

These specifications and more for the vehicle will be detailed in the library's request for proposals to build the project, which the library is putting together. She said she expects the entire project to be completed by next spring.

'We are so delighted that this is a way that we can serve our community,” Logsden said.