Earlier this month, the Community and Family Outreach Services department at the Delaware County District Library (DCDL) added four new stops to their regular delivery rotation. While the DCDL Bookmobile traditionally has scheduled visits to private daycares or senior living facilities, these new community stops are special because they are completely open and accessible to the public.
Many individuals who grew up in Delaware County remember the days when the Bookmobile would pull in to their neighborhood, park, and open the doors for children, families, and individuals of all ages to walk onto the bus, browse the collection, and take home a book or DVD.
These neighborhood visits stopped over 10 years ago due to the extending reach of the library’s branches and the increasing ease for patrons to visit a location via car, bike or public transportation. Additionally, the DCDL Bookmobile at the time was not equipped for patrons to easily walk on or to provide substantial lighting or other mobile services.
Thankfully, with the introduction of the new Bookmobile to the library family of vehicles, we now have a vehicle with full-sized bus doors and a chairlift, great outdoor and indoor lighting, and an awning for shade or inclement weather cover. The vehicle is also equipped with wireless internet and a checkout station for library staff to operate.
The next time you’ll see the Bookmobile near you will be on Tuesday, May 1 at 4:45 p.m. outside Strengthening Families at the Willis Education Center on West William Street, or outside Conger Elementary School on East William Street at 6:15 p.m. These visits each last an hour and will occur every other Tuesday through the end of 2018.
Weekly stops will occur every Thursday at the Londontown Apartments on Chelsea Street in Delaware at 3:45 p.m. and outside the United Church of Christ in Radnor at 5:30 p.m.
We hope that you stop in the next time you see the Bookmobile in your neck of the woods, whether it’s for a taste of nostalgia or to take advantage of one of our excellent library services. For another walk down memory lane, see what’s new in the historical fiction genre this month.
• “Bachelor Girl” by Kim van Alkemade. A tale inspired by the true story of Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and his mysterious 1939 bequest traces how a Jazz Age millionaire takes his personal secretary and a young actress under his wing and oversees their growing love for each other before triggering dark rumors with his decision to leave the young woman the bulk of his fortune.
• “White Houses” by Amy Bloom. After meeting the future first lady while covering Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign, Lorena Hickock and Eleanor discover a powerful passion between them.
• “The Cloister” by James Carroll. A priest and a Holocaust survivor find their perspectives and senses of identity reshaped by their shared investigation into the classic romance between discredited religious scholar Peter Abelard and his intellectual paramour, Héloïse.
• “The Sparsholt Affair” by Alan Hollinghurst. A World War II-era Oxford engineering student who hides secret ambitions to join the Royal Air Force and the lonely son of a celebrated novelist forge a fateful bond that reverberates throughout seven decades of shared family life and friendship.
• “I Was Anastasia” by Ariel Lawhon. An evocative retelling of the Anastasia survival myth follows the appearance of a traumatized, badly scarred young woman who claims to be the youngest Romanov daughter, launching a half-century of questions, accusations and changing perspectives on identity as conveyed by her supporters and detractors.
