MISSOULA — Reading can bring so much to our lives and, especially, to the lives of our children. But, many across Western Montana do not have easy to books at home. In honor of the KPAX and Scripps Howard Fund’s Give a Child a Book campaign, we checked out some local literacy projects — including a special van that drives literacy around Missoula County.
“The bookmobile is full of delights,” said Dory Athey, Bookmobile specialist with the Missoula Public Library.
For nearly one year, a Sprinter van full of books has served as a mobile branch of the Missoula Public Library. It aims to make it easier to access library services, especially for those who cannot go to one of the other branches.
“We try to meet the county where it is,” Athey said. “Our bookmobile is doing a lot to distribute those resources to people who might not be able to come down to the downtown branch.”
Whether you live in the heart of Missoula or out in Seeley Lake, the bookmobile will find you. For a small van, it contains a lot of information.
“The bookmobile collection right now has about 1,100 items in it,” Athey said. “Lots of those are out with the community.”
There are books of every genre, including some for adults. There are also science kits, art supplies, informational packets about the resources offered by the library and a section of things to keep, for those who cannot get a library card.
“It expands opportunities to increase literacy, be that literacy with books, but there's also civic literacy, digital literacy,” Athey said.
Athey said the Bookmobile brings more than just books to the communities around the county. Her favorite part is interacting with them.
“It’s the best part of my job, to meet kids and talk to them about books and talk to them about what they're interested in, to do science experiments with them, to do art projects with them,” she said.
On the Bookmobile, even the not-so-great moments have a little bit of bookish magic.
“The bookmobile has its own very fun set of challenges. One of them is driving around a sprinter van that's full of books that are on shelves,” Athey said.
A few weeks ago, all the books fell off the shelves in between stops. But, the children at the next one were happy to help put the Bookmobile back together.
“It was more books than I've ever seen in a pile. I was like up to my calves in a pile of books,” Athey said. “I showed up and I said, ‘Hey y'all, the Bookmobile needs your help, if you're up for it during your hard earned summer break.’ and they did it in like 15 minutes…. It was so funny and there was just like chaos and sweetness.”
Later this month, the Bookmobile celebrates one year of driving literacy and moments like this around the county.
“I think it's really important for libraries to be a big part of children’s lives, and this is one way that we get to expand those services.”
You can find out more about our Give a Child a Book campaign and donate here or by texting KPAX to 50155.
