City Streets: Cleveland Public Library Bookmobile



Bookmobile service is not limited to rural areas. Public libraries in

cities large and small also commit to bringing books and other

materials to people who cannot travel to the library. The Cleveland

Public Library (CPL) has served its urban neighborhoods with

bookmobiles since the mid 1920s. In 1926, the first CPL children’s

librarian, Effie Louise Power, made children’s books available to city

residents with the library’s Book Caravan, its earliest bookmobile.[1]

The Book Caravan was a delivery truck with hinged sides that lifted

to reveal books inside. It made book deliveries starting on the

Monday following the last day of school and continued until the

first day of September.[2] This early urban bookmobile kept

Cleveland children connected to reading and learning while school

was out of session. It made stops at playgrounds, parks, and

orphanages, among other places.

 

By the 1940s, Cleveland Public Library Bookmobile was serving

patrons year round. In the 1950s, it was renamed the Traveling

Book Service, and in the 1970s it became known as the Bookmobile

and Extension Service. That same decade, the library began the

Senior Bookshelf, which was the bookmobile for senior citizens.[3]

 

Even though urban bookmobiles like the ones in Cleveland existed

as early as the mid 1920s, it seems that they weren’t as prevalent

as rural bookmobiles, especially in the later parts of the century. Cleveland’s bookmobile went out of service in 1986, but service was reinstated in 2001.[4]

 

Today, Cleveland’s Bookmobile features not only library materials for loan, but also computer stations with Internet access.[5]

 

The Cleveland Bookmobile serves a variety of patrons in the urban neighborhoods of Northeast Ohio. The map on this page shows some of the stops that the Bookmobile makes on a regular basis. It serves senior centers, low-income apartment complexes, and community centers.[6] In addition, a customized van was recently introduced to bring library materials to caregivers of children ages birth to five years. It visits childcare facilities, pediatric clinics, and community events.[7]

 

 

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[1] “Power, Effie Louise.” The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=PEL (accessed June 9, 2013).

 

[2] “Bookmobile 1927: Book caravan, Traveling book service,” Cleveland Public Library Digital Collections, Metadata note, http://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4014coll8/id/507/rec/4 (accessed June 9, 2013).

 

[3] “A Short History of Bookmobile in Cleveland,” Cleveland Public Library Archives, June 2012.

 

[4] Ibid.

 

[5] “Bookmobile,” Cleveland Public Library, 2013, http://www.cpl.org/BranchLocations/Bookmobile.aspx accessed June 15, 2013.

 

[6] “Bookmobile Service,” Cleveland Public Library, 2013, http://www.cpl.org/Locations/Bookmobile/BookmobileSchedule.aspx (accessed June 15, 2013).

 

[7] “On the road to reading bookmobile,” Cleveland Public Library Digital Collections, Metadata note, http://cdm16014.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4014coll8/id/553/rec/11 (accessed June 15, 2013).