Schedule set for Rodman's Bookmobile
The Rodman Public Library Bookmobile will make 19 weekly regular stops throughout the summer as it marks 85 years of mobile library service in Alliance.
Those stops include the Alliance Farmers’ Market at the northeast corner of State Street and Union Avenue from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on most Saturdays between June 24 and Aug. 19.
It also will continue to offer Storytime at 6:30 p.m. during First Friday events in downtown Alliance, and will make be on site July 15 for the Historic Main Street Art and Music Festival.
The 34-foot library on wheels also is scheduled to take part Aug. 12 in the Greater Alliance Carnation Festival Grand Parade, and the Aug. 26 Martin Luther King Jr. Parade.
For a complete schedule brochure, visit the Bookmobile, or the circulation desk at either the Main Library or Branch Library. It can also be found at rodmanlibrary.com/bookmobile.
Rodman’s Bookmobile by the numbers
Howard B. Sohn was director of Alliance’s Carnegie Library when he had the idea to offer a mobile service while making a family trip in a house trailer in 1937 to the American Library Association Conference in New York City.
On Jan. 24, 1938, the first mobile branch – a 16-foot house trailer with an interior width of 6 feet, 3 inches that carried about 1,000 books – made its first stop at the corner of Union Avenue and Ely Street. Lewis Waldman was the chauffer, driving a local delivery truck that was hired to pull the wagon. Idalian Gamble was the librarian in charge of the books.
In 1949, the trailer branch was replaced with the traveling branch, a completely self-contained vehicle that stocked more than 2,000 volumes. And in the 1960s and 1970s, two Bookmobiles were in operation.
The current Bookmobile went into service in 2012. It is 34 feet long, stands 11 feet, 6 inches high and is handicapped accessible. It has the capacity to hold 2,800 to 4,000 items.
According to 2020 statistics, it is among only 679 in operation across the country.
For more information about Bookmobile services, call 330-821-2665, ext. 108.
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Summer schedule set for Rodman Bookmobile
