Rolling into history

A storied piece of Fond du Lac history is rolling into the history books. The red-and-white bookmobile that once traversed the highways and byways of the county has closed up shop.

The Rosendale bus got a lively paint job in summer 2010 from Boys & Girls Club kids.

Bookmobiles used to be a lifeline of library service to rural communities. When every village had its own grocery and hardware stores, people didn’t travel to shop like they do today. But most of these mom-and-pop operations have closed. When people want a can of beans or a faucet washer, they travel to bigger towns where big stores offer one-stop shopping. While many of us lamented the loss of the small business, we still voted with our feet. It seems we’ve traded a level of intimacy – knowing the shop keeper – for variety and selection.

Bookmobiles were a part of the mom-and-pop era. Kids waited for their arrival with eagerness. It was exciting, like wondering what Santa might bring on Christmas morning. Like Santa, the bookmobile stayed only a very short time, sometimes just an hour and then gone. That wasn’t very convenient if you wanted your book on Tuesday and the bookmobile wouldn’t be coming back until two weeks from Wednesday. So why not get your books, DVDs or recordings during your trip to town for the can of beans?

People opt for convenience. In an age when tax dollars are very tight, volume matters. It is simply a fact that it far more people can be served at a lower cost from a fixed location than from a traveling bookmobile. So this is why the bookmobile stopped making the rounds and was parked in Rosendale. It made more sense for people to travel to it than for it to travel to the people.

The bus was showing its age. With no indoor plumbing and rust holes, visitors froze in winter and baked in summer on quick trips to get their library material. Even a lively paint job in 2010 by the kids from the Boys and Girls Club couldn’t mask a struggling enterprise. On top of that, a failing economy was making it tough to continue the program.

Use of the facility wasn’t high enough to sustain library funding; city taxpayers were paying too much for a non-city service. Rosendale village leaders couldn’t guarantee funding to move the satellite indoors. So we made the tough decision to close the old bookmobile forever; its last day was Friday, August 19.

At the other end of town, the parked bookmobile in front of Festival Foods serves folks in the growing northeast corner of Fond du Lac and the Holy Land. But it too will be going away; it will be replaced by the FDPL Express, the library’s first branch, located in the same shopping center.

Express will be kind of like the bookmobile, only much bigger with more selection, comfy chairs, reliable heating and cooling, and indoor plumbing. It will have the books, videos and recordings most in demand. Material reserved from the big library downtown can be picked up at Express. High traffic from the shopping center makes us believe we’ll have the level of use needed to provide the bang for the buck to justify this expansion.

Selling off the bookmobiles is not just about the end of an era; it’s the beginning of a new phase. Bookmobiles may be gone, but what we valued most – the personal service, friendly faces, anticipating an exciting story – lives on in the libraries of Fond du Lac County. Library service is growing and adapting. The staff of Fond du Lac Public Library care about those they serve as individuals.

The sons and daughters of the children who once eagerly anticipated the arrival of the big red-and-white bookmobile now may anticipate a visit to the Express branch with new special surprises. The venue may change, but the thrill remains.