National Bookmobile Day celebrates mobile outreach during National Library Week
John L. Amundsen
Communications Specialist
ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services
(312) 280-2140
jamundsen@ala.org
NEWS
For Immediate Release
April 6, 2010
CHICAGO – On Wednesday, April 14, communities across America will mark the inaugural celebration of National Bookmobile Day @ your library, which honors the role of bookmobiles and direct-delivery outreach services in fulfilling the mission of libraries. Part of National Library Week, National Bookmobile Day will highlight how bookmobiles help communities thrive @ your library.
With much of the country still struggling through a difficult economy, libraries and mobile services are part of the solution when a community is struggling economically. Providing families with free access to books and online resources and serving as business centers encouraging entrepreneurship and retraining, libraries and bookmobiles support lifelong learning – and in turn need adequate funding.
“The American Library Association’s (ALA) goal is to encourage all libraries to provide equal access to information particularly those groups who are underserved, such as residents of rural and urban America, minorities, senior citizens and the disabled,” said ALA President Camila Alire. “Bookmobiles are an integral and vital part of library service. They connect people in geographically remote and low-income areas with the resources they need for their education, employment and enrichment.”
During National Bookmobile Day, libraries across the country will celebrate the integral and vital role bookmobiles serve in library service. For more than 100 years, bookmobiles have provided access to information and technology and supplied resources for lifelong learning to Americans from all walks of life, no matter where they are – rural areas, cities or suburbs. Â From Cleveland, where bookmobiles bring materials to seniors, the disabled and others who would otherwise not be able to go to the library, to Memphis, where the JobLINC mobile job information center brings career search resources directly to the neighborhoods that need them the most – bookmobiles are a vital component of library service.
To learn more about National Bookmobile Day, find out about events near you and see ideas on how to celebrate mobile outreach in your community, please visit
http://www.ala.org/bookmobiles.
National Bookmobile Day is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), the Association for Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL)
The theme of National Library Week 2010 is Communities Thrive @ your library. First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.
