The last full year of the county bookmobile’s service, it logged more than 4,000 miles, attracted more than 2,500 users, while people checked out more than 4,300 items.
After getting parked permanently by budget cuts in 2004 after more than two decades on the road, the vital resource, especially to San Benito County’s many rural areas, is getting rebuilt for another run – possibly starting next year.
It’s not among the major spending proposals in the 2007-08 county budget, but it may be one of the most important decisions the Board of Supervisors made this year by including $219,000 in the slate of expenses to outfit a new bookmobile.
The bookmobile isn’t just about circulation numbers. It’s about an additional opportunity for betterment, a valuable tool on which many people have relied for instructional materials provided by the San Benito County Free Library.
It’s a guaranteed benefit that disappeared because there wasn’t enough money to provide the service that we all came to expect.
First, the state dropped its library funding level in 2003, temporarily shutting down the mobile unit. Then, the county cut its library funding as well in 2004, all but siphoning out the bookmobile’s remaining gas.
Literally, thousands of kids and adults had a stockpile of educational riches at their fingertips and lost them, unless they were been willing or able to travel to the library’s location on Fifth Street.
Relatively new County Librarian Nora Conte this week pointed in particular to our scattered population of around 57,000 residents – some up to 50 miles from downtown Hollister – in relation to there being one library here.
“It’s very difficult because there (are) mobility issues for young children and senior citizens, and others because of the cost of gas. So we need to get that out there to them,” Conte said.
While the board’s other high-profile, discretionary expense in the 2007-08 budget is a $50,000 injection into the Economic Development Corp. – a sign that officials see visionary collaboration as a priority – the bookmobile funding is another form of an investment, too, and a potentially fruitful one at that.
While the Board of Supervisors appears intent to approve the proposed budget, including a new bookmobile, officials’ emphasis should turn next to keeping its engine running for many years to come.
The county should take steps to set this foundation in its place for good by establishing a more consistent funding mechanism for the bookmobile outside of general government spending, one way being through a more stable base of private donations.
