By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
Since 1923, the Burlington County Library System has offered its patrons service on wheels. Over the decades, its mobile facilities have waxed and waned, but now the 40-foot Bookmobile draws patrons of all ages.
”We go after anybody who cannot easily go to one of the county library buildings,” said Paula Manzella, the Bookmobile coordinator. That includes children and the elderly, people who rarely leave their residences, and those who live far away from the libraries, such as people in Florence, Mansfield, North Hanover, and along the border between Bordentown Township and Chesterfield.
The original Burlington County Bookmobile was a Model T truck, with doors in the back that opened to reveal shelves. A county librarian toured the area, though there is no record of where he or she stopped. The service fell off in the ‘30s and early ‘40s, when it was replaced by “library stations.” But the purchase of a new van in 1960 revitalized the Bookmobile service, and was soon followed by a second in 1963.
After several more iterations, the latest Bookmobile, a Freightliner, was purchased by the Burlington County freeholders and put into use in 2004. It is one of only a handful in the state, and the largest, Ms. Panzella said.
It now attracts up to 80 people each of the four days it is in service, and carries a rotating selection of more than 4,000 titles. Patrons can choose from books — both regular and large print — and audiobooks, as well as DVDs of all types, available to anyone with a Burlington County library card.
Choices range from the hottest bestsellers for adults to manga and graphic novels, and kids’ books and movies. The service also offers seasonal music selections, such as holiday music.
”There’s a little bit for every taste, every person,” Ms. Panzella said.
The books are kept on slanted shelves of the walk-in facility, making them accessible to patrons even as they stay anchored when the truck is in motion.
Library patrons also can check the current library catalog via laptop, or pick up interlibrary loans, just as they could at a stationary library. While there currently is no set-up for public Internet access, “there is a future there,” Ms. Panzella said.
Local adults frequently tell Bookmobile workers about their fond memories of the service, an aspect of the job the supervisor said she appreciates. Having gone to more events in 2008 than in years past, the evidence that the Bookmobile was a big part of many people’s lives keeps mounting, Ms. Panzella said.
”We took it to the Burlington County Farm Fair this past summer,” she said. “I worked all four days, and one of the things that struck me was how many parents were getting on the Bookmobile.
”In the ‘60s and ‘70s it was the only way for some of the kids to get to the library, so there’s a lot of fun memories that resonate with people.”
Ms. Panzella said she has always been interested in the service, and she took over the role of its coordinator a little over a year ago.
Besides its rotating selection, the Bookmobile offers library patrons interlibrary loans just like any other branch of the system. It also features familiar faces, with a regular staff of driver Stan Zalinka and librarians-on-the-go Donna Marandola, who has been at the job almost seven years, and Trish Phillips. Ms. Panzella works mainly out of the library system’s main office in Westampton and gets to work on the truck only a few times a month.
Ms. Panzella emphasized the fact that the Bookmobile is not meant to replace libraries, merely supplement them.
Indeed, the vehicle itself aims to embody the entirety of Burlington County. The staff came up with the truck’s artwork when it was first made available, basing the design on the old country catchphrase “We go from the river to the ocean.” The sides show the Pine Barrens, which turn into the ocean as the painting wraps around the front. On the back stands a cow, to represent local farmland.
For her part, Ms. Panzella continues to enjoy her role in a historic county library service.
”It’s fun to see people bring their kids on,” she said, “and say, “Oh, this used to come to our neighborhood, I knew so-and-so, and it was so great!’”
For more information about the bookmobile, including its schedule and stops, visit www.bcls.lib.nj.us/bookmobile.