THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507280213
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 53 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
BACK IN THE 1930s, Currituck County residents would gather 'round a Model A Ford donated by local philanthropist Joseph P. Knapp, waiting for someone to withdraw the cache in the rumble seat.
Pulp treasures would be distributed to eager readers, bringing the world of knowledge and entertainment to isolated communities.
Counties like Currituck, Camden and Pasquotank are no longer as remote, but the modern version of the Model A - the bookmobile - is still going strong.
Each month, a van loaded with 2,400 volumes of books and other library materials stops at convenience stores, government buildings, day care centers, nursing homes, mobile home parks, military housing, schools and even a ferry.
``It's offering opportunities for children, older people, everyone who otherwise would be deprived of what is now becoming essential as we become more an information-based society,'' said Jane C. Marshall, head librarian at the Currituck Public Library in Barco.
Currituck librarians average 474 miles a month in the 11-year-old Gerstenslager van, bringing books to people from Moyock to Point Harbor on the county mainland, as well as to Knotts Island and the Outer Banks' Corolla.
This summer it added four new stops, now totaling 28, to reach more people. Last year 11,903 books were circulated among 1,673 bookmobile patrons, Marshall said.
The Pasquotank-Camden Public Library is the only other center in the area with a bookmobile. During the 1994-95 fiscal year, bookmobile patrons borrowed 9,767 books and 439 items such as magazines and books on tape.
``It's gaining popularity in a different way,'' said Anne Sanders, director for the library region that includes Dare, Currituck, Camden and Pasquotank counties.
``Traditionally it made neighborhood visits, and it was primarily designed for rural areas where people didn't have access to transportation,'' she said.
The bookmobile still meets that mission, but its role is expanding to include day care centers, nutrition sites, private schools and shut-ins.
Visits to child-oriented centers generally include a story time, which library officials hope will inspire a generation raised on television to turn to books for entertainment.
``We've got to get them reading. We've got to get them started with books and read to them,'' said Elizabeth Campbell, the Pasquotank-Camden bookmobilist for the past eight years.
Many working and single parents don't have the time or energy to drive into town for a library visit, she said.
``That's why the bookmobile visits are so important. The children need to be reached, and they won't be exposed to libraries without this.''
Campbell and Currituck librarians, who rotate bookmobile duties, also deliver books to the homebound and the elderly.
Campbell spoke of a couple who once operated a country store in Camden, a longtime stop on one of Campbell's routes. The man is now in a nursing home, and his wife, an avid reader, stays home.
``I'll check out 50 paperback westerns to her, and she'll have read that many by the time I come back in a month - and be ready for 50 more,'' Campbell said.
Dare County phased out its bookmobile program a few years ago, mainly because of funding, said Kathy Huddleston.
``I ran it for 13 years, and I'd hoped to be doing it forever. So it was sad for me, and for the people, too,'' she said.
The Perquimans Public Library, which is included in a different regional library system, also dropped its bookmobile program after the van died and a replacement would cost too much.
Library staff still make house calls to the homebound and will bring armloads of books to day care centers.
Business is still brisk at the Perquimans library, even without the bookmobile. Last year more than 40,000 books were circulated in a county with just more than 10,000 residents.
Dare County just opened a third branch in Kill Devil Hills. The others are in Manteo and Hatteras.
In Currituck, Marshall said her staff constantly re-evaluates the bookmobile program to ensure that county residents make full use of it.
``We have some strong, adamant advocates of the bookmobile,'' she said. ``Many of them are saying this really is their link to being able to obtain a lot of books, and therefore creating for them a gateway to the world.'' by CNB