Bookmobile spreads love of the written word around Beaufort

Clouds moving in from the southwest threatened to dampen the parking lot of Summit Place of Beaufort, a senior living community behind Hampton Inn. But it was Tuesday, and the Beaufort County Library’s Bookmobile was parked safely under the canopy, the same spot it occupies every couple of weeks or so.

Besides, the impending rain won’t stop the short parade of community members from getting aboard the moving library.

It’s clear this was the highlight of the day for several Summit Place residents. As the wheelchair lift at the back of the Bookmobile gently deposited a resident inside, two more residents climbed the steps near the front. As she made a beeline for the large-print non-fiction titles, one woman said “I feel for people who can’t read.”

Another woman a couple of feet away was looking for the latest novel from Mary Higgins Clark or Danielle Steel, though she first had to return a handful of books she checked out last month.

She said it takes her 2 to 3 days to read one the books. “She’s being modest,” said county library assistant Tracye Blue. “She’ll pull an all-nighter if it’s a (novelist) Lisa Jackson mystery.”

Blue is a veteran of the Bookmobile in the best sense of the word. She started riding as an assistant in 1990 and stayed until it made its final run a few years later. When they shut down the Bookmobile program, Blue moved into working at the Lobeco branch of the library, but jumped at the chance to get back into the latest incarnation of the Bookmobile - complete with wifi and backup camera - when it started back up last summer.

Like her colleagues, librarian Amanda Dickman and fellow assistant Suni Lorimer, Blue knows the people at the stops as well as she knows the best places to park. The three takes turns driving and making transactions run smooth.

“I like having repeat customers and having the opportunity to serve,” said Blue.

For Dickman, it’s a second chance at putting her degree in library science to use in the county system. Following a period of “burnout” at the reference desk in various Beaufort County branches, Dickman left to work full-time within the music ministry of her church. The call to work on a moveable feast of books, however, was intriguing enough to plunge back in.

“I truly know people now - there’s a difference when you’re in someone’s backyard,” said Dickman. “There are always more places to visit and people to reach. That’s the challenge of it but also the reward.”

The reward for patrons is not only a library that comes to you instead of vice versa, but it’s also a collection of mostly new materials that are constantly turning over. All genres and all formats are in the bus, including DVD’s and audiobooks.

It’s the classic paperback, though, that had the Summit Place resident back on the front porch engulfed in a page-turner as the Bookmobile pulled out of the parking lot. More than thirty minutes had flown by before it was time to move on to the next spot down the road in the Marsh Pointe community.

As the bus found a spot in a sandy parking lot under the shade of an oak, three children and their mother were already waiting to board. One of the four, a little girl in pigtails, had five DVD’s ready to return. As they all stepped on, two more children materialized and headed towards the Bookmobile, which was suddenly more popular than an ice cream truck.

The space inside filled quickly with the addition of three more small children, but was still not at capacity.

“I’ve got another Thomas the Train book, see?” asked one little boy.

Another had a Black Panther book, which we all know is better than the movie.

All three library workers were busy making recommendations and filling out summer reading logs and giving further encouragement to these already-motivated young readers. Lifelong learners were developing at this second stop of the afternoon, just two of the nearly 40 stops made each week by the Bookmobile.

It’s part of an effort to, as Lorimer says, “take the library to people who would otherwise not go.”

Since starting up last year, in fact, the Bookmobile has circulated over 21,000 items to over 9,000 people, including 315 who were issued library cards on board.

Between the branches you can get to and the mobile branch that gets to you, there’s almost no reason to not check out the county library offerings. Unless, of course, the Bookmobile isn’t yet in your neighborhood.

In that case, just call the Beaufort Branch and ask for them to add a stop in your neck of the woods.

Yes, you could find yourself fighting with a neighbor over a book you both want. There’s worse ways to spend a Tuesday afternoon.