History
The British Workman reported in 1857 on a perambulating library operating in a circle of eight villages in Cumbria, including Mealsgate, the birthplace of George Moore, the Victorian merchant and philanthropist who was the President of the Committee managing this Scheme designed to "diffuse good literature among the rural population". The Warrington Perambulating Library set up in 1858 was another early British mobile library. This horse-drawn van was operated by the Warrington Mechanics' Institute, which was anxious to increase the borrowing of its books.
An early bookmobile in the United States was a mule-drawn wagon carrying wooden boxes of books in Chester County, SC. The People's Free Library started this service to the rural areas of Chester County around 1904.
Another early American bookmobile was developed by Mary Lemist Titcomb (1857–1932). The librarian at the Washington County, Maryland Free Library, Titcomb was concerned that the library was not reaching all the people it could. The annual report for 1902 lists "23 branches", collections of 50 books in a case placed in stores and post offices around the county. Realizing this still failed to reach all of the county's rural residents, in 1905 the Washington County Free Library provided one of the first American book wagons to residents by taking the books directly to their homes in remote parts of the county.
The Gerstenslager company specialized in building mobile libraries and similar vehicles in the 1950s.
The Internet Archive Bookmobile prints out-of-copyright books on demand, and in whatever type size is desired. The project has spun off similar efforts elsewhere in the developing world.
To meet the growing demand for "greener" bookmobiles that deliver outreach services to their patrons, some bookmobile manufacturers have introduced significant advances to reduce carbon their footprint, such as solar/battery solutions over traditional generators, and all-electric and hybrid-electric chassis.
Read more about this topic: Bookmobile
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“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)