The National Bookmobile Day is celebrated every Wednesday of the National Library Week. During this day, people give honor to bookmobiles and the persons behind their operations. Bookmobiles, operated by diligent professionals, work their way through communities in order to give access to books to the people who cannot afford to buy books or those who cannot go to the library. For more than 100 years bookmobiles have brought a library to those that otherwise may not have access to one.
About the National Bookmobile Day
Bookmobiles are mobile libraries designed to travel from neighborhood to neighborhood. They hold a variety of books, periodicals and usually run on a schedule. Many have computer access and check out books much like a local library. Books can be returned on the next scheduled stop or at the associated library. Because of this, bookmobiles have become so useful. They are the sources of knowledge to people who need them the most. That is why these bookmobiles are honored during the National Bookmobile Day for all the good things that they have brought to the people.
History
The National Bookmobile Day is coordinated by the American Library Association, the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Service and the Association of Rural and Small Libraries. Unfortunately, even with extensive research, we weren’t able to obtain accurate information about the specific details of the origin of this special day. Regardless of that, we can safely assume that the National Bookmobile Day was created to mark their usefulness and for people to remember them as our technology continue to become more advanced and evolved.
Dates
As mentioned earlier, the National Bookmobile Day is celebrated every year on the Wednesday of the National Library Week. This means that the dates of celebration for this event are as follows:
- April 22,
- April 7,
- April 6, 2022
- April 26, 2023
Why Celebrate
The following are the main reasons why you should participate in the celebration of the National Bookmobile Day:
To Realize the Importance of Bookmobile
Perhaps you are one of those people who still haven’t fully realized the importance or significance of bookmobiles. There are people who don’t have the cash to pay for books. There are also areas, especially the marginalized ones, who don’t have a local library. But just like those with access, these people also need resources where they can get knowledge. And that is what they get from bookmobiles. Hence, you should celebrate this day to commemorate this importance.
To Raise Awareness
You must also celebrate this day to raise awareness about bookmobiles. If you are well versed with it, then it is your responsibility to disseminate the information to other people.
To Promote Bookmobile Services
You should also celebrate this day to promote bookmobile services. Let people know the importance of this service so that services like this would continue to operate and won’t stop as long as people need access to books.
Celebration Ideas and Activities
The following are the best things to do to make your celebration of the National Bookmobile Day as best as it can be:
Support the Local Bookmobile Service
One good idea for your celebration of this day is to support the local bookmobile service. If you have one in your area, you are fortunate enough. Hence, show your support to the service by subscribing to them.
Petition for a Bookmobile Service
If your area doesn’t have a bookmobile service and you believe that there should be so, then you can spend your celebration of this day by petitioning to the local government to provide your area with a bookmobile service. Let them know how useful it can be for the citizens of your locality.
Raise Awareness
You can also celebrate this day by bringing attention to the historical significance of bookmobiles by telling your friends and family about them. Explain what bookmobiles can do for today’s youth and how important reading is. If you work in a library, start your bookmobile service and travel around your community to give children free books to read.
Celebrate on Social Media
You can also take your celebration of this day on social media. You can, for instance, use the hashtag #NationalBookMobileDay to let your friends and followers know that you are also participating in the celebration of this important day.
Quotes
- “People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother’s house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count of the Bookmobile.” – Adriana Trigiani
- “I had seen myself, a portrait of myself as a reader. My childhood: hours spent in airless classrooms, days home sick from school reading Nancy Drew, forbidden books read secretively late at night. Teenage years reading – trying to read- books I’d heard were important, Naked Lunch and The Fountainhead, Ulysses and Women in Love.” -The Night Bookmobile” – Audrey Niffenegger
- “There’s a lot of people that need these stories, and they can’t come to my book, so I’m going to be the bookmobile and I’m going to come to them.” – Sandra Cisneros
- “Back in ’93 and ’94, when ‘Dookie’ was being made, my dad built this tour bus for us, out of a bookmobile. We toured in it for the first year. It was a really bad idea, by the way.” – Tre Cool