Iowa City Public Library prepares Bookmobile for summer programming

IOWA CITY - Iowa City Public Library staffers have been preparing for the debut of the Book Mobile for more than a year - with some even driving around a small city dump truck for practice before getting behind the wheel of the bus-like library.

Kara Logsden, community and access services coordinator, said she's been 'living, breathing, thinking” about the Bookmobile for about 18 months. Her efforts, along with those of other staffers, culminated Monday when they filled the Bookmobile with roughly 2,500 materials in preparation for some initial appearances in May and the start of summer programming in June.

'We knew from strategic planning that we needed to get out in the community more,” Logsden said. 'The beauty of a book mobile is that it's mobile. We can literally go to all parts of the community. We can go to festivals. We can go to other outreach places, go into the community and meet people where they are.”

In all, the mobile library received $250,000 - a $150,000 grant from the Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation and $100,000 in city Capitol Improvement Program funds. The city council voted to approve funding last May, after discussing how it might affect Iowa City's other mobile library, the Antelope Lending Library.

Meredith Hines-Dochterman, public relations specialist for the public library, said officials identified the Bookmobile as a way to serve a spread-out population during its last five-year strategic planning process, in which staffers held interviews and conducted focus groups with members of the community. She added that the Bookmobile plans to partner in programming with Antelope for events like story times.

This summer, the Bookmobile's materials are being aimed at children. The schedule calls for five days of operation with parks and schools among the planned stops.

A full schedule is available at icpl.org/bookmobile.

During the school year, the Bookmobile is to operate four days a week and have materials appealing to a wider audience.

Also, in an effort to appeal to all residents, the 32-foot truck itself is equipped with wifi and is wheelchair accessible.

'There's a lot of personality that comes along with a book mobile,” Logsden said. 'It's kind of a boutique service where you really get to know your people and we just hope that people come out and we reach out to new people and they just learn to love the library.”

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