{"id":17989,"date":"2017-08-01T20:09:07","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T00:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17989"},"modified":"2017-08-01T20:09:07","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T00:09:07","slug":"library-launches-next-gen-book-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/library-launches-next-gen-book-mobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Library launches next-gen book mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a motorized library on four wheels.
\nThe \u201cbook mobile\u201d used to visit various locations around town, engine running, while potential library patrons perused new books or heard a story or two.
\nThe book mobile in Aurora is now due a revival \u2013 but this time, the book mobile is an innovative, eco-friendly alternative.
\nThe Aurora Public Library\u2019s new Book Bike was launched Monday.
\nA one-of-a-kind custom made cargo bike is now on the road and set to make a splash a various upcoming Aurora events and locations. Chances are, if you\u2019re in Town Park over the next few days, you\u2019ll see the Book Bike approach, but stick around and get familiar with it because it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess what will be in, come out, or take place on the bike itself.
\n\u201cIt folds out into a table so we can go out into parks and do pop-up story times; we can also do puppet shows, visit seniors\u2019 homes, and we\u2019ve got mobile technology on board so we can register people in real time and, eventually, even sign out materials,\u201d says Reccia Mandelcorn, Manager of Community Collaboration for the Aurora Public Library (APL). \u201cIt is an ecological, people-friendly impromptu library wherever you\u2019re at and we think we\u2019re going to have fun with it.\u201d
\nTaking books out in book mobiles has been a long-standing tradition, but they wanted to do something a little bit outside the norm, she explains. Similar book bikes are popular in cities such as Winnipeg, but have seen a particular resurgence in many locations around the United States.
\nDuring a recent conference, APL staff members were able to kick the tires, so to speak, on a book bike built by the Ottawa Public Library and marvelled at the outreach and fun they were having with it.
\n\u201cWe just decided out of that presentation that we had to get one for the Aurora Public Library so the search for a book bike began,\u201d says Ms. Mandelcorn.
\nThat search took them far and wide, eventually leading them to a referral in Copenhagen where cargo bikes have become a way of life for young urban families, whether they are carting around groceries or carting around their children!
\nAPL was connected with a cabinet maker who showed them various designs and how they could be adapted for their particular use and now the finished product is ready to be enjoyed \u2013 as long as APL staffers have the pedal power.
\n\u201cSome of our staff are some very serious bikers, not Sunday bikers like myself, but even one who has ridden a bike from Aurora to Ottawa and back,\u201d says Ms. Mandelcorn. \u201cWe have real power there! I have a feeling that our children\u2019s librarian is just ready to go over to Wells Street and Town Park very, very soon. We would like to be able to, for example, go out to businesses and be able to sign up people. We\u2019re hoping to go along Yonge Street and see if we can get some of the local merchants to sign up for cards and teach them about how to register for online free courses, which is a real plus for any kind of small business to be able to promote learning for its employees, and we would also like to be able to go to some of the Town festivals.
\n\u201cWe always go out with a table, chairs and a tent, but this would just be more impromptu and more fun. When we started thinking about programming, we decided to open it up to our staff and say, \u2018If you\u2019ve got a program and you\u2019ve got an audience and you think you can have fun with this \u2013 and you\u2019ve got a good helmet and know how to ride \u2013 just let us know and the bike is yours.\u201d
\nAt the end of the day, the Library hopes it will show people that APL is a \u201clibrary that looks beyond the box\u201d and sees the fun and innovation that can be had. A library is more than just a facility, they say; \u201ca lovely facility\u201d sure, but they want to be able to be out in the town and bring the library to users.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a motorized library on four wheels.
\nThe \u201cbook mobile\u201d used to visit various locations around town, engine running, while potential library patrons perused new books or heard a story or two.
\nThe book…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/2017-08-03-09.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4G9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 18:19:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}