Bookmobiles at PGCMLS Through the Years
Dublin Core
Title
Bookmobiles at PGCMLS Through the Years
Subject
Bookmobiles, PGCMLS History
Description
The photographs and memorabilia in this collection document the history of the Bookmobile program at PGCMLS. Bookmobile service began in 1947 when the library service was in its infancy and had as yet little in the way of brick and mortar buildings to offer. One of the early priorities of the Board of Library Trustees was to pursue the acquisition of a vehicle suitable for providing library service in rural parts of the county. By 1978 the library system had added (and retired) several bookmobile vehicles into their to cover rural and areas far away from the main libraries in the county. By this time the imap and the infrastructure of the library system has drastically shifted and unlike when the bookmobile program started, Prince George’s County Libraries was now made up of multiple physical branches due to the second library director, Elizabeth Hage’s push to expand the library system’s physical structures and services.
In 1978, the centralized Bookmobile Division was dismantled and vehicles were assigned to each Area Branch instead. The following year in 1979, Bookmobile service was reduced from 5 days a week to 4 days a week as a measure to save gasoline. In the summer of 1987, there was a special “Library on the Move” program. It was a van filled with new paperback books for all ages levels and two librarians. This bookmobile visited sites throughout the county such as recreation facilities, summer school programs, indoor shopping malls, community festivals among other places, with the main purpose of promoting the library system to nonusers and increasing the visibility of the library in the community. Services in the bookmobile program included: assisting customers in applying for a library card; checking out books, telling stories and giving information about PGCMLS. Bookmobiles Services at PGCMLS ended for good in 1991 due to the budget crisis.
In 1978, the centralized Bookmobile Division was dismantled and vehicles were assigned to each Area Branch instead. The following year in 1979, Bookmobile service was reduced from 5 days a week to 4 days a week as a measure to save gasoline. In the summer of 1987, there was a special “Library on the Move” program. It was a van filled with new paperback books for all ages levels and two librarians. This bookmobile visited sites throughout the county such as recreation facilities, summer school programs, indoor shopping malls, community festivals among other places, with the main purpose of promoting the library system to nonusers and increasing the visibility of the library in the community. Services in the bookmobile program included: assisting customers in applying for a library card; checking out books, telling stories and giving information about PGCMLS. Bookmobiles Services at PGCMLS ended for good in 1991 due to the budget crisis.
Creator
PGCMLS
Publisher
Special Collections Staff
Date
Jul 10, 2024
Rights
Language
English
Type
Digital still image
Library on Wheels, 1956
Prince Georges Bookmobile Hours Are Announced
Bookmobiles Out of Circulation
PGCMLS Bookmobile Naming Summer Reading Contest
Bookmobile Interior
Bookmobile in a Rural Area
Library System Map 1986
Bookmobile postcard
Bookmobile Van
Library on the Move and Staff Member
Bookmobile at Administrative Offices at Gallatin St in 1946
Library on the Move interior