Not a library, but a bus to spread reading and literacy

In Tampa, on Tampa Bay, in the American state of Florida lives a little yellow bus, called Bess. This bus is full of books and is a not for profit enterprise, that travels accross the USA distributing new books to children in areas of deprivation.  Staffed by volunteers it visits schools who read the stories to the children in classrooms before giving out the books. The intention of the project is to build up libraries in children's homes and give children the opportunity to own a book, which they may not have otherwise.

The idea was started by one woman, Jennifer Frances (Jenn) 14 years ago. It intially operated only in Tampa, but decided to go nationwide after its first 5 years. Jenn says that she was inspired by her grandmother (Nana Bess) who gave her the love of books and reading. Jenn wants to do that with each child. The vehicle manages to operate through donations and sponsorship, from a variety of sources, including Mecedes Benz to a book publisher.

I think that we are very fortunate that here in the UK we have the Book Trust's Bookstart scheme, which also gives books to children. This is a larger enterprise than Bess the Bookbus. Books are distributed to each child in the UK, not always in a little yellow bus, but Sheffield used to have a little blue bus, like a zoo, to go around schools and centres giving out stories and Bookstart packs. I am not sure that it still has. Usually the books are given away at libraries or health clinics, by library staff or health visitors, and children recieve them at the ages of 0-12 months and again at 3-4 years.

Here is the Sheffield bus, with the Bookstart Bear.

Bookstart is a UK charity, has a certain amount of government funding and accepts donations. It works closely with publishers to produce books suitable for children with additional needs and dual language books. Bess the Bookbus, and Bookstart have the same aims - give books, get children reading. 
 

Pictures telling a story

I have a google alert set that sends me anything related to children's mobile libraries. It is a bit hit and miss if I actually get anything more interesting than obsure mobile apps (change of use of the word mobile) or the running schedule of a particular vehicle. However, browsing through today I found the following photos loaded up onto flickr from an album posted by Providence Public Library (Rhode Island).

 

This first photograph is from 1961 as you can tell from what the library assistant (or librarian) is wearing. She is so formal and professional - you couldn't possibly go anywhere without wearing a hat. The children are wearing the same sort of thing that I used to wear as a child of about their age in the 1960s. The mobileness of the vehicle appears to be that it contains a shelf of books to pull out and browse through. I do love the poster on the shelves announcing "Playground service" and the children are so serious.  

  This next photo is from 1986 where Providence Public Library has obviosuly invested in a much larger vehicle. This time the children look happier.

 I think that this photo taken five years later is iconic - it could be an artwork. Presumably it is the same vehicle, in its garage, waiting to spread books, happiness and literacy to the children of Providence. To me, who has never been to the USA and take my knowledge from films, it looks like it could easily turn into the Ghost Buster's vehicle. 

 As we can see here, however, it is a beautifuly illustrated bookmobile. It did turn into something...

It appears to have become a mobile art gallery, a good idea in itself, but I do feel a bit sad that in 2004 it is has become a glaring red, like a fire engine.

The album that is home to these pictures is at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ppl_ri_images/albums/72157622565124845

Random Updates and Reminiscences

One of the small irritating problems that we encountered on the Reading Rocket (a children's mobile library) was accessing Derby City Libraries' library management system live from our lap-top. Mobile technology was still developing at the time, and although some authorities were using satellites dishes on top of their mobile libraries, our technicians considered that the expense of satellite dishes, their deployment time and reliability was not as effective as using an internet dongle. This meant that we could access the Derby City Libraries system and the internet over a mobile phone signal. This was great, most of the time, but there places in Derby that received poor signals and on occasions the driver of the Reading Rocket would have to move the vehicle a few feet up or down a street before we got good reception. It seemed particularly bad in places where we were near mobile masts, like if we we just too close.

It is quite remarkable, then to read this story of a mobile library in 1980s Colorado which not only could be the very first mobile library with an on-line computer, but perhaps also a very early example of WiFi. The signals between the Mobile Library modem and the library mainframe computer were by radio, meaning that library had to have its own frequency. More of the story can be found at:
 
https://bookmobiles.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/the-first-online-bookmobile/

It is really quite common for children's mobile libraries to be illustrated with pictures from well known book authors. The Reading Rocket was covered with illustrations from Nick Sharrat's book Rocket Countdown (Walker Books) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocket-Countdown-Nick-Sharratt/dp/1406322245. This was all perfectly legal, we got help and permission from Walkers Books and Nick Sharrat himself came to officially launch the "Rocket" and I still have my signed copy of Rocket Countdown which Nick said he signed with Jacqueline Wilson's pen. During my field work I found examples of work by:


Chris Riddel (Manchester's Reading Voyager)

  Mick Inkpen's Kipper from West Sussex

and Little Rabbit Foo Foo by Arthur Robins in Stockport.

The attractiveness of a familiar picture or artistic style appears to draw attention to the vehicles, and perhaps gives some sort of clue as to the content, not ice creams or hot dogs! I have found this other example of the tradition going on in the Caribbean island of St Martin where a local author has allowed her character "Lizzie the Lizard"to be put on a mobile library that visits schools on the island. 

http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/13916-lizzy-lizard-is-a-star-on-the-jubilee-library-book-mobile.html/

And here are some pictures of the Reading Rocket:

Only little, but doing a lot

Well that title could apply to me, those who have never seen me don't know that I am only 5 foot tall, but that was the height when I last measured myself. I am way past the age of having grown anymore, so yes, I am little, and I do do a lot, working, writing, painting, gardening, bogging (sometimes!). However, the title does not apply to me, but to this lovely little bookmobile from Batram Trail in Georgia,, USA.

http://boingboing.net/2013/10/01/ford-transit-modded-into-mobil.html


I would like to have one of these to drive around, telling and reading stories and inspiring children to love books.

Best practices in Children's Mobile Libraries: Stock procurement

Someone has to make the decision of what to put into a children's mobile library and as can be expected, it varies according to the authority. In some library authorities the operators advised a library purchasing team about which books or items were popular and went well in their vehicles. Some purchasing teams were made up of children's librarians, but in others they were not. In some authorities, the operators had no say at all, library stock being centrally purchased from a Library wholesaler. It is perhaps no surprise to discover that the services where operators were able to advise the acquisitions teams about which books their customers liked were more successful at inspiring children to read. 

The number of requests for specific books, or even books of a certain genre, was much greater in the vehicles where the books were centrally purchased by staff who had no contact with the vehicles, staff from the vehicles, or even other children's libraries. I was on one vehicle that had no dinosaur books, which really disappointed one little boy. I also visited a CML which had no horse books, and that really disappointed a young girl. On the other hand, I found two different CMLs where the operators had a lot of say in which books to stock and they were really enthusiastic about the books, getting books off the shelf to show me, saying things like "have you seen this one?" "this one is new, I really like it", " this is great book, and the kids love it". It is that sort of enthusiasm which inspires children. I also found two vehicles on which children told me they preferred to their nearest static libraries because the CMLs had more "books that they like". There was also the vehicle that visited a tiny rural village school. The teachers were so grateful for the service, because their children were "voracious readers" and the village was so isolated it was not easy to get to another library, and as one of the children said to me, it would have been really expensive to buy all the books she read. Those children revelled in the variety of books that the CML stocked.

Unfortunately, not even children's librarians get it right. There was one CML which I visited where the books were purchased by the children's team, who no doubt were guided by general trends and new exciting authors. The operators outlined three problems with their stock, and they felt that the children's librarians were not listening to their suggestions. One problem was that there was not enough non-fiction in stock, only a tiny shelf-full. The librarians apparently were of the opinion that reading fiction develops empathy and understanding, which is no doubt a good way to introduce children to feelings and a safe way of handling them. However, they forgot that libraries are store houses of knowledge as well as stories, and sometimes it is the knowledge that inspires children to read, or helps them learn out of the classroom. The second problem was sometimes new books would turn up, which were "trendy", but the customers of that vehicle ignored them. That new series was just not to their taste. It shows that local populations have their own opinions and a book which does really well in one community may not in another. The third problem was that librarians who come onto the vehicles to read stories from a "storybook collection" frequently chose really inspiring books, that simply were not available for loan, so children who wanted to read the book they had just heard, which happens frequently, could not borrow the book.


Now, why is all this important? I feel that I have been rambling a bit with this blog, and it is a little while since I have been thinking in the terms of logical arguments. The point is that to motivate and inspire children's reading, to give them the reason to read, you must offer them things that they will want to read, however puerile, however trashy, or even however highbrow. Books about films, or television characters, or comics, or graphic novels, or about ballet or boxing, are all a way of getting children hooked on the printed word, and gives them practise and motivation to start understanding those symbols we use to convey messages. CML operators spend a lot of time talking to children about books and their likes and dislikes, and therefore know what their particular customers want. Operators who like the stock themselves, and who have had a hand in choosing it, are more likely to know which book is just right for customer "X", and which books will be borrowed, and will have the enthusiasm to "sell" a book, or an author to a child. therefore operators recommendations for stock should be heard and implemented.

Choice and variety is also important, which sounds like a contradiction to getting the right books for the right child. I can only explain the phenomena of a large selection of the right books for one community with the memory of one boy I met, taking ages browsing at the shelves standing, looking, perplexed, being hurried by the teaching staff, sighing longingly, "There so much to choose from". His problem was not that he couldn't find anything he liked, he had found everything he liked.  

Bright Star Mobile Library: an example of a little vehicle

I have recently come across people who have a narrow concept of a Mobile Library, thinking that they are all large, expensive vehicles, but that is not the case. Here is an example of small, but perfectly formed, and very effective mobile libraries


Bright Star Mobile Library – Give2Asia

Going where other libraries cannot reach

This is the second post that reveals one of the "theories" that revealed itself during my research: another unique aspect of children's mobile libraries. Again it is so obvious that I am embarrassed writing it, a mobile library can get to places that a static library can't. Yes, I realise that a static library by the nature of it's name, cannot go anywhere, and therefore the service element of a static library needs mobile people, people who are prepared, eager and able to go out to visit the library. (You can tell I have just done a Phd, I am now all philosophical, pedantic and analytic). A library that can move can reach people who would not, or can not be sufficiently mobile or motivated to get on a bus, or get in a car, or even walk to their nearest library. 

Lack of mobility, difficulty of transport or geographic location are only a few reasons why some children do not visit their local library. Children told me that they didn't like the static library in their town, or their mum wouldn't take them, or it did not have such a wide variety of books ("books that I like"), as the children's mobile library. There is definitely a psychological aspect to the inaccessibility of a library building. Entering a box on wheels is not as foreboding. The static library opening times are also a factor, during the day, children are at school, nursery or play group. The beauty of a CML is that it can hunt down the groups of children where they are, when they are, they go to schools at school time, they go into the streets at home time, or holiday time. Children use CMLs without their parents, sometimes they have the supervision of teachers or other educational staff, but Adults are in the minority, and CMLs that stop in streets attract many unaccompanied children. This means that children can be independent of adults and learn to use a library although their parents do not.

There is a phrase that appears to be used by social scientists to describe a set of people who do not access the services of which they are entitled. These people are termed the "Hard to Reach" people who either choose not to access services or do not know that there 
are services that might help them. For some reason, library services are better dealing with "The hard to reach" than others. I looked at the way that CMLs tried to find those groups.
CMLs visit places of financial disadvantage, as well as some well to do area's, but I found that  the socio-economic class of the child CML customer is irrelevant.

Family attitudes to reading, books and literacy, negative or positive, cut across socio-economic divides, therefore, the CMLs need to go to all area's to capture the children who's parents are not that bothered about books in the home. I attempted to find the dominant socio-economic or ability group of CML visitors, and I have to say that no specific group of any type dominated the visitors that I met. They were a complete mixture. In that mixture were children who's families certainly encouraged reading, and some children who were so far advanced in their reading skills, in ability and speed, that an ordinarily household would not have been able to hold all the books the child read. Those children certainly benefited from a free, never ending supply of reading matter. At the other end of the scale were children who were afraid of touching books, or did not know how to hold one and turn the pages. These children were gently encouraged to have a go, and  at least gained the experience that books contained words and pictures that were there to convey a message. Two things can be concluded, the CML is of use to children of every ability and, in order to reach the hard to reach, and children of low ability, you have to take the total mixture.

It is rather unfortunate that only a very small percentage of the child population of the UK actually have access to a CML. When I wrote the thesis, about 9 months ago, 16 local authorities of a total of 228 operated 26 children’s mobile libraries in a range of geographic locations. From my current investigations, this has gone down to 12 authorities and 21 vehicles, a sad reflection of the economic climate. However, the CMLs that I know about visit children located anywhere. Not all CMLs go to all the types of location on the following list, for various reasons, but at least one CML go to such places as Schools, Special Schools, Nurseries, Pre-school groups, parks, streets where children live, children's secure units, traveller sites, fair-ground permanent sites, farms, urban areas, rural areas, inner city and city estates. If one CML can visit such locations, then surely others can also. Although CMLs do not visit each child in the UK, they hold the potential to do so. CMLs can reach all children of all abilities. 

The above diagram shows my simple argument. It just needs funding and the will to achieve such a situation.
 

What two entires in one day?

Record Gazette > News

This is a link to a webpage about a children's mobile library that has been commissioned for a literacy improvement project. I am pleased that someone with money and authority can understand the contibution that such a resource can have to literacy 

Reading for boys.

 I have not yet read the detail of this report,( Boys_Commission_Report.pdf (application/pdf Object) but the executive summary suggests that there is absolutly no reason why boys should not be reading as avidly as girls. There is no strange quirk in the male brain that stops boys from enjoying reading. I also believe that boys DO read, because I have caught them at it, devouring books, magazines, web pages, newspapers in a school library, on children's mobile libraries or at home. The problem appears to be more the fault of adults. The exectutive summary of this report says that adults expectations of boys are at fault, teachers don't know about the right books, adults don't buy the right books.

The point is, adults don't look and take note of what the boys are reading, for example the sports pages of a newspaper, or a website about their favourite online game. The exective summary concludes that contact with a regular (weekly) male reading role model gets boys into the reading habit. During the time I spent working on and researching children's mobile libraries I observed many males being a reading role model. Not only male CML operators reading stories aloud, but also male operators quietly reading to themselves in full view of the children and male parents reading to their children (male and female). Male operators also praise boys' reading and discuss their choice of book with them, as an equal because the operator has read that book.

There are a number of other reasons why childrens mobile libraries are a conduit to boys reading enjoyment.

• They can choose whatever book/reading matter they want from a wide variety, uncensored by parent or teacher (mostly)
• They are in an enviroment where reading is accepted by their peers
• They respond well to the individual attention they recieve on a CML and the informal situation
• The nature of the learning environment found on a CML including humour, fun and adventure, matches the learing style of most boys. 

So, my solution is, get more children's mobile libraries, and send them out into the world seeking out boys, luring them out fom behind their computers and draging them from the playing fields! 

And now dear readers, it is time to reveal all!

I should have mentioned, on the 4th of April, that I did become a Doctor! The Thesis was duly defended and passed, subject to corrections which are not too many or too difficult. It is now time for me to tell the world about what I found. I will do this by breaking down the findings into small, post sized pieces and when I have done all those, I will do case studies of each vehicle that I observed, anonymised of course. This task should keep me occupied for a while!

Today's contribution is about the thing that is special about children's mobile libraries (CML). I defined a children's mobile library as a vehicle that provides all the services of a static children's library, but I felt that as I was specifically investigating mobile, not static children's libraries, I needed to find the element that made them special. Otherwise I could just have observed any children's library. I admit that what I discovered was blindingly obvious, children's mobile libraries work because they are mobile, they come and go away again.

This transience has a number of effects. It makes children and their parents or carers excited about visiting the vehicle. The excitement that children feel stimulates their brains into the right sort of state to absorb information therefore they learn better. The coming and going ensures that customers "Catch" the vehicle, they know when and where it is coming, so they make the effort to go, unlike a library that is always there, so you could choose to go whenever you want to but end up not going. I had not done very many observations when I noticed that one phrase was repeatedly told to me by many people. They liked the CML because it was "Different".

It was different because it was "Like a trip out", because the books were different, because the stories were different, told by a different person in a different way. The idea of this different thing that turned up out of the blue every fortnight, or three weeks, or month captures the imagination, and the anticipation of the event makes people, especially children, excited. Now, as an ex-teacher, I know that half your battle in controlling a class is stopping them from getting too excited, but it turns out that to learn well, you have to have certain amount of adrenaline and nor-adrenaline flushing around your brain. This wakes up the brain, relaxes it but also makes it alert, just what you want when trying to get the little dears to learn something. So, if you have all these children coming onto a vehicle stacked with everything to do with literacy (books, videos, stories, computers, pictures, words), their brains are picking up all the clues they need to piece together the jig-saw of reading ability.

But what happens if the brains are constantly stimulated? There is no time for feedback, for reflection, for setting down the experiences into memory, so you need a time of calm.This happens when the CMLs go away, and life returns to boring reality of the classroom, or nursery, or home and dinner. That sort of time lets children sort out and make sense of the things that they have just seen and heard. Remembering the story, for instance, or recalling a picture in a book, or thinking about the book they want to borrow next time or the enjoyment of the one that they have in their hand, just borrowed.  I have a diagram to explain all this, which I will put in here.

"Build up" is what happens when customers are expecting the vehicle, "Occurrence" is what happens inside the vehicle and "Release" is the moment of calm and thought after the vehicle has left.

There is also a theory by someone called Carmelli, that travelling shows, which seem to appear overnight and disappear just as quickly, attract people because people feel that they have a brief moment to experience a small part of something eternal, that keeps circling around forever. Mobile services certainly seem to attract the human mind, just think of ice-cream vans, and what a treat it is to have one in your street. It takes a mean parent to refuse a child an ice-cream when the van comes into your road, even if it is nearly lunch-time. Children's mobile libraries feed off this sort of attraction.

If you want to follow up Carmelli's work the reference is "Carmelli, Y.S. 1987 Why does Jimmy Brown's Circus Travel?: A semiotic approach to the analysis of circus ecology. Poetics Today, 8(2). 219-244". There are many books available on education and the brain.

Doom day

Well, I started this blog to be a story of my research about children's mobile libraries in the UK, and in recent months I have only been adding links about interesting children's mobiles I have found in other parts of the world. That is because all the research has been culminating to today. It is the day of my Viva Voce, my "Oral examination" when I will find out if the research and thesis will be accepted to be good enough for a doctorate. I have been looking forward to this and being scared by this. I have just done a check on websites of the various children's mobile libraries that I visited, and I am a bit sad because at least another two have disappeared, which leaves only half of the ones where I did observations. My moral dilemma is should I have published my work sooner? or have the CMLs just got too expensive to run because of the rising cost of fuel?

It really is time to have another search through local authority websites to check how many CMLs there are in total, but I won't manage to achieve that by 2pm today (that's the time of the viva). So, don't think that this blog is coming to an end, just because I have finished one journey doesn't mean that I won't start another, and more importantly, now after the work has been marked I can say more about what happened on the journey. I am planning to write case studies of each vehicle where I conducted observations, those will have to be anonymous, of course. I can tell you general stuff about all the CML's that I could find, even the ones that have gone, let this blog be an archive of their work. I will also put up my findings and diagrams I drew to understand the information that I found.

I am also writing a paper about storytelling on CMLs and I will report on that and subsequent papers. I really did gather enough information to keep me going for years. (But I do need a job now, so if anyone has a spare one out there, I would be grateful!) Anyway, to keep my list of CMLs up to date, it would be good if anyone out there could tell me if they know of a CML that is still operating in their area, or if any new ones are planned. If the reverse is happening, and if anyone knows of a CML closing down, then I will be more than happy to offer my services as an expert witness to the value of using a CML.

Oh, in case you are in doubt, I did prove that CMLs do spread literacy and a love of books.

The pressures of funding

This article from America is indicative of the problems we have here in Britain. Librarians and some councillors know that CMLs help children love reading, but can't get the money together to provided a service.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20110821/NEWS/110829965/1116

Thesis written

Well, the thesis is currently in University waiting for my supervisor to read and tell me what is wrong about it! My journey, I hope, is almost over, although I will write up more about my findings once the PhD has been passed. I particularly enjoyed doing the field work and feel very privileged to have met some interesting people with stories to tell about their experiences of children's mobile libraries. I was welcomed at each vehicle that I visited and I was quite enchanted by the actions of many of the children, I feel I saw some special moments in children's lives. More about that another time.

Overall, I found out that children's mobile libraries (CMLs) do pass on a love of books and reading to children, but not in the way that I thought they would. I thought that children's mobile library staff (I have been calling them operators) would need to have an in depth knowledge of literacy and working with children, and each vehicle would have to have lots of story times and active teaching, but that is far from the case. If you are a CML operator, you will scoff at me, you will say that you knew you were helping children's literacy and changing children's lives. Yes, many of you did tell me that. I can now prove that you do.

Children's mobile libraries work because they are a vehicle that comes and disappears again. that makes children (and staff) excited, which opens the brain to learning experiences. On the vehicle, there are books, books and more books, or posters about books, or toys of book characters, or recordings of books, or someone reading a book to you, with the occasional computer for children to play with. Basically, once you have entered the realm of a CML you cannot escape from words. This space of words is controlled by the operators, who tease you, cajole you, ask you about the book you have picked up, wants to know if you enjoyed a story, they make friends with you and talk about books. They let you choose what ever book you want, perhaps with a quick check in case you get in trouble at home for choosing a certain subject. Operators help children being literate by being enthusiastic and encouraging, not by being pedantic and disparaging. Children's mobile libraries work because they are fun ... and children like them.

I will leave this post with two photo's, a before and an after. The before, on the left, is a Children's Mobile Library. The after, on the right, is what it has become. I am sad about such a wasted opportunity.

Leeds new look mobile library on streets - Yorkshire Evening Post

Typical, isn't it, as soon as I take a month's leave something happens and a new children's mobile springs up. If only I had warning, I could have gone to see it. Still, apart from asking Leeds libraries what their aims are and why they have chosen to start a new service in this stringent times I don't think that this new library will add any more data to my thesis. So, I am pleased that CML's are still being launched and hope that Leeds will not be the last one for a while.

Leeds new look mobile library on streets - Yorkshire Evening Post

Library Services for Young People · Children’s Mobile Library for Leeds, UK

Latest News: New mobile library prepares to hit the road

Latest and maybe last bit of fieldwork, Manchester and Stockport

So, it has been just over a year since I started going out on vehicles and although I am doing qualitative research (stuff that cannot be counted or measured), here are some figures. I have observed over 700 children, I have talked to at least 29 staff and 40 parents and carers. I have undertaken observations in 13 vehicles over 9 library authorities and informally spoken to the staff of two more. If I have missed you out, I apologise. I still hope to contact everyone by the end of the PhD, so if you are part of a Children's Mobile Library service and have any burning issues to tell me, please be in touch. I have made friends all over the country and I hope that mobile libraries and library services can exist for the next year so that I can report back!

So, the last two bits of fieldwork were a Saturday morning with the Reading Voyager in Manchester, gosh, the traffic was hectic, and a Thursday afternoon with the Stockport Storybus.The Reading Voyager visits 10 mainstream schools and 5 special schools regularly on a three week rota. This is to fit in with the main library service borrowing period for books. They also visit children’s homes, a travellers site, a fairground site and street stops after school. They mainly issues books and don’t generally tell stories apart from during special events. They have collaborated with Manchester museum to produce a board game about books which is still played in the schools they visit.

The vehicle is currently run by Diane and Lynne. They always work with a driver who could be one of a pool of seven,the drivers circulate like Lincoln. The driver of the day during my visit was Karen. She has worked in Libraries for the past 30 years and has driven a mobile library for the past 15. Both of the staff I saw today love their jobs and are dedicated to the service.The aim of the service as far as Diane is concerned, is to break down barriers. She feels there is more to their service that just giving out books, part of it is being a role model and another caring adult in the children’s lives. She has taken over the post from the woman who set the service up. The vehicle is a “Leicester coach builders” vehicle. The inside is pleasant enough, the shelves are pinky purple and the carpet blue. There are two padded seats at the back and lots of shelves that go up to head height only. The shelves are all face on, and there are a number of spinners. It has a public laptop, the only other one that I have seen since my days in the Reading Rocket, The outside is cream with illustrations by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.

The Stockport Storybus is quite different. It's target audience is children under the age of five. It operates with a team of three people, Christopher, Carol and Alison and it is managed by Sarah.

This service was started in 2001 as part of the sure start service. It still has a sure start logo on its livery. It specialises in under fives and visits under fives groups, schools and nurseries, children’s centres and has community stops, Alison and Christopher also deliver Bookstart books, tell stories in clinics and work with parents and children. Much of their work involves modelling storytelling for parents, so that they can do it with their children at home. The team also train Sure start staff who have little confidence in storytelling.Today was the last day of term and I had the privilege to meet the whole team.
The vehicle is on the road three days a week, and has eight stops a day. The community stops are usually very busy with parents and grandparents bringing their children and grandchildren on board. The interior is colourful, decorated with nursery style scenes, only a few book shelves and a number of kinderboxes on the floor. It is a large space, dedicated to storytelling activities. It was a lovely end to some very fruitful fieldwork.

The Bexley Children's Library

The Bexley Children's Mobile Library is managed by Jacqueline Luckhurst who has been involved with the service since it officially started seven years ago. During that time she has seen the development of her customers as they progress through school and move from "Where's Wally" books to the "Darren Shan" series. Jacqueline has two part-time driver assistants, although she can drive the vehicle herself. When it goes around schools and children's centres or in parks at holiday time, it is double staffed. This means that Jacqueline is able to spend a lot of time talking to the children and helping and advising them as they choose their books.

The children's mobile library only visits schools because that is the place to find children. The service is available for the individual child. The interior is decorated with children's work from all the schools it visits, created specially for the vehicle. On my visit they were displaying a dragon and St. George that was done as a celebration of St. Georges day.

I was there

The two links that follow are press reports about events at this year's Mobile Meet which was held on May 8th at Dewsbury. I found this year's particularly interesting and very useful from a research point of view. The day started with a talk from Baroness Boothroyd, one of my role models, a wonderfully strong minded woman who controlled the business of the house of commons like a powerful headmistress.

Baroness shares love of libraries - Dewsbury Reporter

Her talk showed her humour, warmth and no-nonsense approach to life. Part of her duties at the Mobile Meet was to present the awards for the new "Mobile library champion of the year awards", which was an idea that came to the Branch and Mobile Library Group of CILIP from an Australian visitor last year.

Mobile library champion of the year : Warwickshire News - Warwickshire Web

It was a good day for me because I met the staff of the two Powys Children's libraries that take books to children during school time during term times, then transform themselves into "The Book Runners" during holiday times. They consider that in that way they "Reach every child in the county". They had not brought their vehicles with them but that gives me a chance to visit them some time. I also saw the two Oxford children's mobiles. I will be visiting them on the first of June. Their latest vehicle is actually a mobile children's centre as well as a library and I will be very interested in visiting that.

One of the most surprising vehicles is the Bookstart story telling mobile from Sheffield. Unfortunately because they do not issue books and perform the functions of a library I can't count them in part of the research. The idea of a children's mobile library for Sheffield had been discussed, but it was considered impractical because Sheffield is such a large city more than one vehicle would have been needed. From my point of view, I consider that a worthwhile investment, but I think Sheffield libraries only had funding for one vehicle. It is remarkable, however, because it looks exactly like a zoo cage, or for those of us who remember such barbaric things, a travelling cage for a circus animal. The side lifts up completely to expose bars and a very inside which is stuffed full of animals, the soft toy variety. It's function is to go around distributing Bookstart packs and telling stories. It's aims are to reach the unreachable, promote literacy and tell parent s and children about the library service. If it cannot inspire children to read, then nothing will!



Here are some pictures of it!

The third vehicle that drew my attention was the North Tyneside children's mobile. This was a surprise because I did not know of that one. I think it is very unfair of authorities to start a new vehicle with telling me! However, this vehicle is staffed by a dynamic young woman, Rachel, who obviously loves her job. Like the West Sussex northern vehicle it is single staffed, but unlike the West Sussex vehicle it is BIG so I am filled with admiration of Rachel's ability to drive it. It visits children at schools and children's centres with the emphasis of providing a service to the individual child. It targets disadvantaged area's, hard to reach groups and schools that are not near a static library
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It is unusual because the livery flows inside as well as outside.

A the end of the Mobile Meet prizes for best vehicles are awarded. This year the Oxford mobile children's centre won the innovation award, the Sheffield Bookstart promotional vehicle won best best small vehicle and North Tyneside won best livery and delegates' choice. A good day for children's mobile libraries.

Leicester bookbus

I have now spent a morning and an extended afternoon on the Leicester bookbus. The promotional work at a primary school on Monday morning stirred up some interest with the children, because when it visited the school at home time on Tuesday (a regular, weekly stop) there were several new customers all keen to join and borrow books. The staff have developed a rapport with their regular customers out on the streets of Leicester. Many of the children I spoke to were very enthusiastic about the service and would not have borrowed books from anywhere else. Parents and children alike said that the chance to borrow books helped them with their reading skills.

The Edinburgh bookbus

I have spent three days with the staff of Edinburgh's Access Services, riding around on the book bus with them. I think I may have scared off some of their customers, because places that I was assured were usually busy did not choose to board the vehicle that day. Well, I am accustomed to that sort of erratic behaviour by customer groups, but it was a bit sad not to see the system in full swing. I met Edinburgh's Reading Champion, Colm Linnaer, and saw the excellent work that he is achieving with disaffected children. There are definitely some "readers" being made through his efforts on the bookbus. The bookbus visits family and children's centres, special schools and secure units, places where children do not have any other access to library facilities.

The West Sussex book buses

Last Week I was kindly hosted by West Sussex and spent two days touring sunny Worthing (yes, it was sunny) and one day in sunny Crawley (cold, but sunny). I also had the privileged to take part in two Word Book Day events at pre-schools. The book buses visit underfives settings on a three weekly schedule. The children come on in small groups listen to one "big" story together, then have to opportunity to browse the books, handling them, sharing them and being read to individually by library and setting staff. There is a great deal of partnership between the setting and the bookbus staff. This was demonstrated by the World Book Day activities. The activities were jointly planned, setting staff prepared each setting with craftwork by the children, and a story was read by bookbus staff, then acted out by staff, children and me.

The Southern bookbus is quite large and staffed by two specialist assistants. The Northern bookbus is small, staffed by one library outreach worker and only operates on Mondays and Fridays because it is shared with the Families and Children's service. This seems to work well.