Eager patrons line up at each of the 35 stops that the Jefferson County Public Library’s bookmobile rolls into each month.
“I couldn’t exist without the bookmobile,” said Ann C. Jones, a resident of the Highland West Apartments, 6340 W. 38th Ave. “I can’t get out with two or three books. I end up getting six or seven.”
For the past 2 1/2 years in Jefferson County, the 28-foot-long white bookmobile has catered to Jones and other seniors, a group that library outreach coordinator Terri Bailey says is an underserved population.
“We provide service to seniors in residential facilities – every independent-living situation we can find,” Bailey said. “This is a group that can easily get shuffled aside.”
Doris Vond of Wheat Ridge called the bookmobile “a great convenience” for satisfying her fiction and detective-book appetite.
A century ago, the first bookmobile – a horse-drawn wagon – appeared in Maryland. Through the 20th century, use of bookmobiles grew. Bookmobiles were encouraged during the 1950s and 1960s to get reading materials to newly developing suburbs with one-car families.
Many have vanished from U.S. roads as transportation improved and libraries were built.
While some may consider the lumbering bookmobile a dinosaur in an Internet world, the service is still offered in communities such as Denver, where it visits many schools; through the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs; and the Rangeview Library District in Adams County.
Rangeview officials say they find faithful readers of all ages at stops in newly sprouted subdivisions north of Denver and clear out to Strasburg.
“We are really popular,” said bookmobile manager Vicki Alswede. “Some people come on rollerblades, and one lady with a day-care center brought four, five kids who rode their tiny automobiles up and parked under a tree.”
Adams County put a bookmobile into service in 1953 and now ferries about 5,000 books on board a 33-foot-long bookmobile purchased in 1994.
The Rangeview district is seeking a mill levy hike of $2.32 per $100,000 in valuation, with a portion earmarked to buy a second bookmobile in 2006.
Jefferson County, which spends about $10,000 a year in gas, insurance and maintenance on its bookmobile, is so supportive of the service that a new one is being built to replace the 1991 model.
Scheduled to arrive in early spring, the new $200,000 bookmobile will feature a lower floor and a ramp that will expand services to seniors in wheelchairs and to assisted-living facilities.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
