A brand new Bookmobile hit the streets in Georgetown County this week, and it couldn’t come soon enough for many residents across the county.
“Several of our daycares and some of our older residents have called saying ‘when are you coming back,’ because we’ve been off the road for about a month,” said Hailey Davis, who serves as both the Bookmobile Supervisor and Branch Manager for the Andrews Library.
Daycares, nursing homes and assisted living facilities are some of the biggest users of the bookmobile, which circulates anywhere from 500 to 1,200 items per month. It’s a valuable asset for residents across the county who can’t travel to their local branch. After the new Bookmobile arrived, staff had to move all the materials over from the old vehicle and spent a couple of weeks training, during which time Bookmobile service was suspended.
Davis said she thinks patrons will be pleased when they get their first look at the new Bookmobile. The custom vehicle was built over the course of about a year by Matthews Specialty Vehicles in Greensboro, N.C., and boasts a number of improvements over its predecessor.
For starters, it’s about two feet longer and has more shelving, a more efficient layout and a driver’s seat that spins around to a librarian’s desk to maximize space. It will also introduce mobile Wi-Fi that can be used by patrons and a drop-down screen that can showcase upcoming programs or other important information.
“We’re also finally going to have an awning again, so if it’s hot and sunny, and people are waiting to come in, they’ll have some shade without the Bookmobile Librarian having to pop up a tent,” Davis said.
The shape of the new vehicle is also different. The new Bookmobile is a customized step van platform with a Ford chassis. The old one was a cutaway van platform, also known as a box truck, with a two-part shell, similar to what is used by UPS or FedEx.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the artwork on the outside. It will have the same mural – featuring kids reading while enjoying nature – that the county’s last two Bookmobiles sported. It was drawn by a local student many years ago and has become both recognizable and beloved in the community.
The specs for the Bookmobile and the layout for its interior were all created by Davis, along with Sheila Sullivan, the library’s Head of Children/Youth & Outreach Services. Davis was previously the Bookmobile librarian, so she has worked with the Bookmobile since 2015. Additionally, her husband used to be the Bookmobile mechanic, so she has a unique insight on what the needs were for a new Bookmobile. Sullivan also has experience as a Bookmobile supervisor.
“Sheila and I both knew that whatever we designed, our fleet services guys needed to be able to work on it,” Davis said. “I can’t tell you the amount of people that build specialty vehicles and then can’t maintain them.”
That means when there’s a problem, it’s more costly to fix and the vehicle is out of service longer while the vehicle is transported and repaired.
“We both basically fine-tuned the body style based on what we needed for the route,” Davis said. “I chose the step van versus the cutaway and I worked in tandem with our shop maintenance guys. We planned out everything from the types of wheels it needed to the type of engine to the type of generator.”
Once loaded, the vehicle is heavy at the back, due to the weight of the books, and that too has to be planned for. Davis also knew she wanted the vehicle designed so a commercial driver’s license wouldn’t be needed to operate it. That wasn’t required for the previous Bookmobile either, and Davis recalled practicing driving her church’s van to prepare when she was hired as Bookmobile librarian.
Three backup cameras on the new vehicle instead of the one camera on the old Bookmobile make operating the vehicle safer.
Of course, there were also color patterns, shelving design and more consider.
“There’s a lot that goes into it that people wouldn’t think about,” Davis said. Things like making sure the shelving has a slight tilt to keep books from flying all over the place every time the vehicle makes a sharp turn.
The new Bookmobile was funded by a $226,088 Community Development Block Grant awarded back in 2021. The vehicle was originally scheduled for delivery last summer, but lingering supply chain disruptions caused a delay. One of the major objectives of the grant was to provide mobile Wi-Fi and technology capabilities to low-income rural areas.
Find the Bookmobile schedule at gtcounty.org/bookmobile.