The Cupertino Courier
Cover Story
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Movie titles: Hugh Williams goes through the bookmobile's selection of DVDs. before choosing several he'll view and share with other Sunny View residents.
Book Passage
Library bookmobile delivers books, services
By Hugh Biggar
Although Silicon Valley is best known as the home of high technology and all things Internet, it's also a place for readers who like to browse the old-fashioned way.
That's why, on a recent, crisp autumn afternoon in Cupertino, a group of browsers of the old school stood patiently in the parking lot of the Sunny View Retirement Community on Cupertino Road. At 2:30 p.m., right on schedule, a candy-colored van with the slogan "Bringing the Library to You!'' displayed on its side, pulled into the lot for an hour-long visit.
The patrons eagerly await the van's arrival every two weeks for a chance to peruse the books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, VHS tapes, and other items it contains. For some of them, the bookmobile visit is the highlight of their week.
A service of the Santa Clara County Library system, the bookmobile provides a portable library of 3,500 books. It make 33 stops within the county system. traveling from Mt. Hamilton to Montebello School in the Cupertino foothills, south to Gilroy, and as far north as an elementary school at Stanford University. It is open to all county library cardholders.
Karen Apland, chief librarian and bookmobile driver, greets patrons by name as they step aboard.
"We get to know our patrons personally and we get a lot of good readers," she said.
Slightly larger than a walk-in closet, the interior of the 35-foot-long bookmobile has the appearance and feel of a mini-library. Books ranging from Elmo Visits the Doctor to Blogging for Dummies to Fiasco line shelves slanted inward to prevent the books and DVDs from falling out during bumpy rides. The musical choices include Latin, classical and rhythm and blues, and the movies range from classics to contemporary. The DVDs, fiction and non-fiction books, and magazines are checked out at two stations--one at the front and the other at the rear of the van. Voter information and library card applications are available as well.
Patrons have two weeks to return borrowed items, but strict enforcement is rarely required since most people get their material back on time.
Visitors sit on small benches while they converse about books with the librarians and other customers, turning the van into a kind of book salon.
"A big part of this of job is being a reader adviser," said Apland while assisting bookmobile regular Hugh Williams.
"What do you think would be good?" Williams asks, looking over DVD choices. Williams makes the selections for movie night at Sunny View.
Behind him in the narrow aisle, two women speak in Chinese while looking over the book selections. At the back of the van, another regular patron, Isaak Raykhman, asks library assistant Nadine Dowgiallo about the latest additions to the bookmobile's Russian language collection. Raykhman is particularly interested in Russian romance novels.
At one point, Apland stepped out of the van to deliver books to a patron named Ruby, who uses a walker and is unable to move easily inside the van.
Members of the Chao family, who live down the street from Sunny View, arrive pulling two wagons loaded with books. The youngest, Mina, 17 months old, toddled into the bookmobile clutching a copy of the DVD, Munich, which she's returning for her mother. Her older brothers, one wearing a flaming dragon bike helmet, climbed on the benches to reach books and video games. Both of the wagons will be filled again when the Chaos leave.
Gustavo Villareal wandered in, joining the crowded aisle that now includes Laddie, the resident dog at Sunny View. On a break from work, he looked over books on travel.
"It's very helpful and I can order things like books on Mexico," said Villareal, owner of Hair By Design in Cupertino's Monta Vista area.
"We have a little bit of everything for everyone, from the senior set to preschoolers," said Apland. "Though what people like depends on the stop."
For example, at a stop known as "The Junction" in the San Antonio Valley past Mt. Hamilton, the ranchers are big readers and particularly like nonfiction as well as the movie selections, said Apland.
For the Sunny View stop, Apland stocks up on large-type books and audio books for its mostly senior clientele. At the Montebello stop, the bookmobile brings more children's books.
Apland and Dowgiallo pilot the bookmobile three days a week, in addition to serving as bookmobile librarians, book advisers and friendly faces to their regulars. They keep themselves fueled with cookies and coffee.
"It's a lot more fun than going to an office," Dowgiallo said. "People really appreciate the service."
When Apland and Dowgiallo are not operating the bookmobile, they work out of the county library headquarters in Los Gatos, handling administrative tasks and stocking materials from the bookmobile and county library collections. The bookmobile service also includes delivering boxes of pre-selected books to nursing homes.
"We serve the people who would have hard time getting to the library on their own," Apland said.
The rise of the Internet and the amount of material now available online hasn't decreased the demand for books, even in a place as wired as Santa Clara County, according to Apland. In fact, the bookmobile remains a popular service in the award-winning county library system and is being requested by other communities.
"San Jose and Sunnyvale have dropped bookmobiles into their systems, and we have gotten a lot of calls from people asking if we can stop by," she said.
Google has requested the bookmobile in Mountain View's library system stop at its office, she said.
In Cupertino, Villareal is among those who hope the county bookmobile continues to make local house calls.
"It comes in handy because it is near my business," he said. "Otherwise I wouldn't have time to make it to the library."
For more information on the Santa Clara County Bookmobile, including a schedule of stops, call 408.293.2326 x3060, or visit www.santaclaracountylib.org/bookmobile.com.
