Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Ryan Finigan (right) and Kenneth Stevens exit the bookmobile at Lakeside School.

Bound for Story

Librarians bring a movable feast

By Mary Ann Cook

If you've been bewailing the automated society and its lack of personal attention in areas that once offered service aplenty (gas stations, doctors, telephone operators), you obviously haven't been to a bookmobile lately--specifically, the Santa Clara County Bookmobile.

People who live in remote, far-flung areas such as the Santa Cruz Mountains and outlying unincorporated sections of Los Gatos, Cupertino and Saratoga, as well as Saratoga's Fellowship Plaza and the Odd Fellows Home, have been bookmobile devotees for years.

It's the only library in the county where you get hugs as well as books, says Supervisor Cherelle Grube, whose official title is Library Assistant III.

The bookmobile has a 70-stop circuit that takes two weeks to complete. Those who use the service become regulars, so the booksters get to know their customers. "We watch the kids grow up. We get to know them so well," Grube says, "that we named one." They named him Keith, Keith Fox, and by now he's 9, but he was several weeks old before his mother could decide on a name for him. Not until she checked out the best title for her infant newcomer with the book folks did she close that chapter.

Service? You want service? "When I see a book I know someone would like, I say to myself, 'Mrs. Whatshername would like this book,' and so I make sure I get it to her," Grube says. Sometimes books are mailed or dropped off on someone's way home.

In addition to the books, videos, magazines and CD-ROMs that transport their recipients into a different world, Grube and her staff bring an attentive and sympathetic ear. They know the concerns of their patrons--keeping up to date on children's weddings, divorces, their hopes, fears and dreams, along with the due dates on their books.

The three stops in the Santa Cruz Mountains Summit area constitute the busiest day in the two-week cycle. By the time the truck has stopped at Lakeside and Loma Prieta schools and Redwood Estates Pavilion, 1,000 books have changed hands. On average, 400 books are checked out per day from the Bookmobile, but at the Summit, that number more than doubles, with 40 to 45 people lining up and coming through.

Some 10 people can comfortably fit into the bookmobile, Grube says, but sometimes there may be as many as twice that number. "You'd think they'd realize there wasn't room to get to the shelves, but they keep climbing on anyway. When people are clamoring for attention and I can't get to each one right away, I give them a hug while they're waiting," she says.

"The need up in the hills is really great," Grube says. "There's a lot of home schooling going on there." And the Santa Cruz County Bookmobile doesn't come there anymore, although they're planning to reactivate the run, perhaps by early next year. "But people tell me they'll still come to us," says the Santa Clara County rep.

Another reason the Summit bustles with bookmobile action is linked to the fact that in the past, hill-dwellers used the Los Gatos Town Library free of charge, but since the library receives no tax money from those in the county, a fee service for nonresidents was initiated four years ago. The fee is $45 yearly for a single library card and $60 for a family.

(Says Los Gatos Library Director Peggy Murray, "That area pays $300,000 into the county library system, but we were expected to provide all the services. If a contract could be worked out so that we got some of that tax money, the fee structure could be changed.")

Meanwhile, back at the county bookmobile, there is no limit to the number of books you can check out. Only muscle power dictates that. "People come with boxes and bags and load up," Grube reports.

It's not uncommon to see people standing in line to wait for the bookmobile. The elderly elbow other senior clients aside in order to be the first into the truck--"people in their 80s," Grube says, amazed.

For the isolated and elderly, those far from a stationary library, the bookmobile may be their mainstay, the fulcrum of their lives. That's another reason Grube makes sure people get their hugs as well as their books. The bookmobilers are not just bringing reading and viewing materials with them: They're carrying dreams as well. "We may be their only social life, so we act accordingly," Grube says.

The book purveyors also drive the truck. Their route runs from the fringes of Palo Alto to Gilroy, from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the other side of Lick Observatory, San Antonio Valley. Each section of the county has its own favorite reading material: for Stanford it's mysteries; for Saratoga/Los Gatos, bestsellers; for Campbell, romance; for Gilroy, Westerns.

On alternate Wednesdays, the bookmobile makes stops at Saratoga's Fellowship Plaza and at the Odd Fellows Home.

Because many residents of Fellowship Plaza are Russian, the bookmobile stocks a supply of Russian-language books. According to Roselle Goldman, who works full time on the bookmobile, there are also a number of Korean residents at Friendship Plaza. "Popular materials at this stop are cassettes on becoming an American citizen as well as tapes to help learn English," she says.

Just prior to the Fellowship Plaza stop, the bookmobile pulls up at the Odd Fellows Home. "We have many regulars here," Goldman says. "Many of them are in wheelchairs or walkers, and they can't get inside the van, so we bring materials out to them, which makes them very happy."

Bookmobile librarians also bring books on tape for many of the residents who have limited vision. "For some of them, these books are the only company they have."

The librarian-chauffeurs receive four hours of training whenever a new van is purchased. But even with training, the rig is awkward to negotiate and the hills can be treacherous. One time a few years back, as the bookmobile approached Summit Road, it careened off, took a nose-dive and ended up blocking Summit Road crosswise--at 4:30 p.m.

Fortunately, a busload of inmates from Elmwood came to the rescue before too long. They got behind the bookmobile and pushed, lining it up so it was in operation again. The prisoners had been planting trees in the area burned out after the Loma Prieta fire.

"We've spent a lot of time in tow trucks or waiting at the side of the road, sometimes till 8:30 p.m. We've waited when they sent the wrong-size tow truck," and then they had to wait some more, Grube relates. Those problems seem to be in the past now because the vans are relatively new these days, a '95 and a smaller, less-used '91.

The bookmobile has the greatest number of large-print books in the county system. Each time it makes a run it carries 300 books on tape, about 100 CD-ROMs and 500 videos, to say nothing of the 2,000-plus books on board. It's custom-packed for each run, since different folks like different books, as noted.

A warehouse in downtown San Jose holds the books not traveling that day. The bookmobile budget is approximately $50,000--for books and other equipment only. Coffee-table books with plenty of photos, gardening books and cookbooks are foremost among the staff's recent purchases.

It takes the staff about 90 minutes to fill the movable library, and it's heavy work lugging that many books around. There are two full-time librarians on staff and two part-timers, plus a countywide list of substitutes. Two people at a time attend the route, and if a regular is ill and a sub can't be found, the run has to be canceled.

Goldman and Grube work full time; part-timers are Jeanne Wardrip and Wilda Cornforth. Since the bookmobile is a low-tech operation with no personal computer on board, there's no database to consult, and the staff has to be familiar with a wide range of books and authors. A well-stocked memory has to do what the computer does in mainstream libraries.

Fortunately, each of the staff members has a niche, her own specialty. Goldman is a horticulture and history buff; Wardrip is clued into mysteries; Wilda is wicked on nonfiction and Grube is up to date on contemporary fiction.

The world of the bookmobile is a free-spirited sort of place, Grube says. You operate as you go, make up a system that works there and then. There are no fines imposed, magazines aren't expected to be returned and Grube doesn't miss the convenience that might come with spanking-new computers.

People come to her with tears in their eyes, they're so glad to see her and the laden treasure trove that she dispenses. And they're grateful for the recommendations she gives on books and methodology.

Case in point: "I don't read," a young mother told her one day. "With four children, I don't have any time to myself."

"Lock yourself in the bathroom and read there," advised Grube. "That's what I did when my kids were little."

The woman took her advice and has been introduced to a whole new world.

That's the Santa Clara County Bookmobile for you: a freewheeling caper, a movable feast.

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