The Book Bike is here! You’ll likely get inquiries about it so here’s some information.
We’d hoped to hire summer help this summer to take the bike to parks, grocery stores, the movie theatre, soccer games, etc. but the project took a little longer than anticipated. It’s a little late to hire summer help. For the rest of the summer and fall I’ll be taking it to a handful of locations around town: the farmer’s market, Hy-Vee, etc.
Deepa is currently researching summer camps, child care facilities, neighborhood associations, concerts, sporting events, and other events and institutions in Johnston. We’ll reach out early spring 2017 to gauge their interest in hosting a book bike stop. We’ll hire a book bike driver in 2017 to make stops May-August. At each stop, patrons will be able to checkout and return materials, sign up for library cards, and use the bike’s Internet hotspot.
The book bike is a Workman Cycles “Mover” industrial trike that, without the added boxes, looks like the one shown below. The box and trailer were custom built by Mike Gustafson owner of Nestcraft Studio in Des Moines. To save the rider from hernias, the bike has been outfitted with an electric front hub capable of pulling up to 600lbs. Although several libraries around the country—including Denver, Rochester, and Seattle—have book bikes, we are, as far as I know, the first library in the state with one.
