As part of National Library Week, today we celebrate bookmobiles and other library outreach programs! Minneapolis Public Library and Hennepin County Library both operated bookmobiles for decades. In fact, Hennepin County Library started 100 years ago as a rural bookmobile. Bookmobiles served communities without easy access to library buildings and even took the place of libraries closed for renovation. Hennepin County Library continues to bring library resources into the community, but the last bookmobile stopped its route in 2004.
Our “Build-a-Bookmobile” LEGO kit is now for sale!
The AACA Library’s 1955 Chevrolet bookmobile can now fit in the palm of your hand. This custom LEGO kit was designed in-house by AACA Library staff and comes with all the pieces needed to build the model, an attractive looking box, professionally printed building instruction booklet, and vinyl decals.
Lots of playability here. The finished model features a removable top for seating a minifigure, and the book box doors fold open to reveal shelving and display monitors. We’ve also included some extra pieces and steps in the instructions, so that you can finish off your bookmobile the way you want it to look.
Quantities are extremely limited. This signed and numbered run of 55 kits is now down to less than 15. Don’t delay; get your ‘55 for $55 today!
The “Build-a-Bookmobile” kit can be purchased through the AACA’s online merchandise shop:
“In 1927 the library initiated its ‘book wagon’ service, thereby expanding its outreach not only to deposit stations, but county schools, ‘book stops’ in villages and even country crossroads. By 1940, the Library operated three bookmobiles that were large enough for patrons to select books inside, eliminating many of the difficulties of winter service to remote areas…
The first wagons were one-ton trucks with custom-made glass doors on the outside that swung up to reveal more books in one place than many country people had ever seen. Each one came with a librarian, a profession even rarer in country parts… Bookmobile service grew steadily after WWII as the county population exploded. Only in 1988 did a network of new suburban branches and a new rural mobility undercut the need for Bookmobiles.“
