County Library Retires Bookmobile, Launches "Raising Readers" Van Program

    This year's National Library Week was a time of beginnings and endings for the staff of the Cullman County Public Library System as they said goodbye to a faithful old friend and welcomed a new program that brings promise for the future.
    The CCPLS Bookmobile, a 1978 Gerstenslager received by the library system in 1993, was retired this week and sent to the county surplus yard.
    Nicknamed "Galloping Gertie" by the library staff, the vehicle was originally purchased by the State of Alabama in 1978 for use at the Cross Trails Regional Library in Opp. Gertie served in Geneva, Crenshaw, and Covington Counties before moving to the Gadsden Public Library in the 1980s and finally to Cullman County, where she served with distinction, according to CCPLS employees.

"Gertie", the library's antiquated bookmobile, is hauled off to become surplus.

"Gertie was state of the art for 1978," said Assistant County Librarian Max Hand, who headed the Cross Trails System while Gertie was in service there. "The new unit will put her to shame."
Mechanical problems and the cost of constant repairs to a 25-year old vehicle finally rendered the vehicle totally obsolete. As Hand implied, though, bookmobile service in Cullman County is far from over.

The library's new "Raising Readers" van.

    "This week, we inaugurate our 'Raising Readers' van service to pre-school children in Head Start and daycare facilities," said John Paul Myrick, Cullman County Librarian. "We have also begun to raise funds for a new bookmobile.”
     According to Myrick, the bookmobile service has a long, storied past in Cullman County, beginning with continuous service from the 1950s until 1981 and again from 1993 until the present. At the time of the current bookmobile's retirement, in fact, bookmobile circulation accounted for some 20 percent of all materials borrowed from the county library.
    "The service was brought back in 1993 as an experiment to determine if such service could meet library service deficits in the county," Myrick said. "Cullman County’s service was used as an example in congressional hearings which led to the first major federal funding for rural library services in the late 1950s."
    The old bookmobile transported approximately 1,200 books and videos to area schools, senior centers, rural communities and other locations. The new bookmobile will have the capacity for almost twice that number and will also provide Internet access via satellite.
     Federal funding for 50 percent of the cost of a new unit is being sought from the Alabama Public Library Service, but the County Library’s share of the cost is expected to be around $55,000.
    "The City of Cullman has already contributed funds and has pledged more to the unit, and the Town of Good Hope has contributed towards the new bookmobile," said Dorlene Daniel, Library Business Manager. "However, more funding will be needed to cover the $110,000 cost and we’re asking for help."
    Persons wishing to contribute towards the $55,000 needed to help pay for the new unit are asked to donate at the library system's main branch in Cullman or to give to the “Bookmobile Fund” at Educator’s Credit Union on Elizabeth Street in Cullman.

The interior of the new "Raising Readers" van, which will visit local Head Start facilities and daycares.

    The newly launched "Raising Readers" van program will be similar to the bookmobile service, but aimed at a much younger audience.
   According to library officials, the free outreach service will involve visiting local daycares, Head Start programs and other children's venues with the aim of introducing preschoolers to reading and providing an additional resource for both educators and child care providers who wish to better prepare their students for school.
    Outfitted primarily with thematic kits, puppets, teacher/caretaker resource materials and other learning activities, the Raising Readers van also carries brochures, pamphlets, and other information to assist parents, teachers and caregivers information on promoting reading and learning, parenting skills, social services for children and other programs.
    The Raising Readers Van Service was provided with a grant from the federal Library Services and Technology Act administered by the Alabama Public Library Service and the Cullman County Public Library System. Additional funding and support came from donations from the local community. Major contributors to the project included Verizon Wireless, Coca Cola Distributing, the Cullman Lionness Club, Cullman County Library employees, friends of the Cullman County Public Library, the City of Cullman Street Department, the Cullman Rotary Club, and Cullman County Library Board Members.