FULLERTON : On the Road With the Bookmobile

Young friends Mercy Berning and Chanda and Brenda Campbell bounced up the steps of the city’s bookmobile when it stopped in their neighborhood one recent afternoon, dragging a bulging cloth bag.

From inside they pulled 12 books and handed them to librarian Barbara Weber and her assistant, Kathy Allred, before diving into the children’s section. Pulling out adventures, fairy tales and picture books, the girls--ages 7, 8 and 5, respectively--within 10 minutes had a pile of 17 books to check out.

“The bookmobile has a real good selection,” said Rebecca Campbell, Chanda’s and Brenda’s mother and a teacher. “Having it come to our neighborhood has made life so much easier.”

For 34 years, Fullerton has been sending its bookmobile to its neighborhoods, bringing the library to those who may live five miles away from one of the two permanent branches. It makes from two to six regularly scheduled stops daily except Sunday. Santa Ana and Anaheim are the only other Orange County cities with bookmobiles.

“I feel like we’re missionaries for the library, taking it into sections of the city that where the people may not be able to get to the main library,” said Weber, the bookmobile’s librarian for 25 years. “The bookmobile is also a great advertisement for the library. Maybe the people who use it will get their appetite whetted and they’ll want to come to the main libraries as well.”

The bookmobile is almost a fully functioning branch, although smaller. Its library is 28 feet long and 11 feet wide and has more than 5,000 books, magazines and audiocassettes available for adults and children. About 4,200 books and cassettes are checked out monthly.

It even has a computer that is linked by radio with the main branch. In addition, patrons can have books from the branch delivered by the bookmobile when it returns to the stop the next week.

Weber and Allred also cater to their regulars. For example, on Thursdays they always bring the latest English mystery novels for Leonard Druce, a British native and a retired insurance executive.

“They know what I like and make sure I always have a selection,” Druce said. “They take real good care of me.”

Weber said the biggest change in her 25 years on the bookmobile is the growing ethnic diversity of its patrons. When she first started, it was rare that a foreign-language book was checked out. Today, 50% of the books loaned are in Spanish or Vietnamese.

Another change is Weber’s driver’s license. Three years ago, the state told her that because of the bookmobile’s size, she would have to get a Class A license, the kind big-rig truck drivers have.

“Being a Teamster is not something they taught in library school,” she said.