OUr bookmobile is not being used right now due to COVID, but I think we have an amazing one. IT'S HUGE! During Summer time it comes twice a month to the school near us. They also decorated it like the HARRY POTTER BUS once!
I keep my Kindle disconnected from the internet unless I'm downloading books. In the beginning I could keep books for a long time but they have changed it. 2 summers ago I had borrowed a book and didn't get a chance to start it during the time they allow. Even though my Kindle was not connected, when I did try to read the book later, I couldn't. I haven't borrowed anything lately, heck, I haven't even read a Kindle book in 2 years so I don't know if that was a fluke or if it still happens.
You get, as in keep. People can donate new or gently used books for the mobile. I donated quite a lot a couple weeks ago, actually. I keep meaning to ask if I can donate money so they can buy whatever they need for it--including gas for the truck. And although it's run through the school district, it's open to anyone--regardless of your address or if you have school-age kids. One thing I keep telling DH I want him to build is a tiny library. He loves projects. I love books. Why not have a tiny library in front of our home for our neighborhood to enjoy? I just donated a ton of books to the bookmobile, but I bet I could find enough to get us started. Oh, and the Gerald Ford airport in Grand Rapids, MI, has a book exchange (ETA sponsored by the county library). That was so fun to see! I guess more airports are doing that. (Not that I've flown recently to personally find out lol.) Uh oh, I've veered from bookmobiles into general "Share books" territory!
I've never heard of this. Maybe since NJ is so small and so populated? We have town libraries, and county libraries. I did google it and found an OLD picture of a bus that used to go around in my county. There does seem to be other towns in NJ that still use this feature, but have temp stopped with Covid.
Well, bookmobiles are sharing books! We've got several book sharing stations in town. I can't think what they are calling them but they aren't that big, have a door on them and anyone can take or add books to them. I know one is right by an ice cream place that gets a lot of traffic in the summer.
I have the WiFi turned off my Nook off as it extends battery life and the Nook can only go to B&N so I rarely need WiFi as I rarely buy eBooks. No WiFi also means I can keep books after the lending period as long as I don't close the book or charge my Nook. So if I know an book is about to expire and I'm not quite done reading it, I'll charge my Nook so I don't run out of battery power before I'm done.
We have a Reading Rover Bookmobile. It's for preschoolers and child care providers. I guess they go around and do story times and stuff! Our library is about 10 minutes from our house. I put books on hold all of the time and just go pick them up. I love it. I'm probably picking up books every 3-4 days. I have books lists saved and I just go through and pick out what I want my kids to read or what I want to read out loud to them. My kids love it when I come home with a stash of new books.
@Scrapping with Liz So, you are saying we should pick your brain for new reads? Our library has this fun service where you tell them a couple of books you like, and they will pick out some books for you to try. We did it for munchkin, and now he's reading the Big Nate series. I was amazed at how well the librarians did!
Are you talking about the little free library? We have a few in our neighborhood. The one neighbor says her daughter buys books at the thrift stores to read and then puts them out in the little free library when she's done. We are thinking of building one.
Yep, that is it but I don't think any of them in town are on private property. The couple I know about are near businesses. Edit to say I looked at the map for my town on the website. It shows 4. One near a park, one in downtown, one next to the waterpark and the last one is in front of a house. The one I thought I knew of must have been placed elsewhere because I know they talked about it being by the ice cream place... but that business is near the park that has one. 2 of them are where lots of kids are during spring/summer. Then the one downtown always has foot traffic. Not sure the residential one gets much traffic unless it is by the street. There are no sidewalks in that area.
I read this book a few months ago and it talks about women who would carry books to patrons in the Appalachians on horses. A very good and eye-opening novel.
My neighbor put up a Little Free Library in her front yard by the end of her driveway about 18 months ago. We have 1600 houses in this neighborhood and sidewalks. so lots of passerby's. I donated some toddler early reading books to the library when it was first set up. Not sure how much use it's getting now during COVID though. I normally donate my K-5th grade children's books to a low income elementary school in DC via a gal in our Girl Scout Service Unit. Linda takes the books to the school and distributes them to the students, tutors the students in reading (former teacher), and brings girls from our SU troops to help run a Science Fair Day each year (pre-COVID). Our troop ran a BINGO night once a year to help fund activities the SU did at the school.
I bet it's getting lots of use now because so many people are out walking. IDK about your area, but here hte libraries are still closed--but plan to open back up soon. So a neighborhood free little library may be a nice alternative! As for donating books (and time etc): that's awesome! What a great way to give back.
Before Covid, I used to volunteer for our bookmobile. Ours goes around to assisted living homes for seniors who would rather read a book instead of a e-reader. It is well funded in our county and the library prints a list of new book releases (mostly large print) so they can check the ones they want. It was my “job” to enter them into the hold system for them. Every once in a while, they would just say they wanted “books on WWII” or “mysteries” and I would pick something they might like. It was great fun as I love to read. Hopefully soon they will start rolling again! I love the idea of a Rover going to day care centers!
Our Neenah Library is part of a county system so that you can get books from any of the county's libraries. We don't have a bookmobile, but we do have bookcycles! These are bicycles outfitted with storage units so that youth librarians can ride them to summer park & rec sites and the kids can take out books.