BOOKMOBILE WILL VISIT CAPE FRIDAY

A bookmobile will visit the Cape Girardeau Public Library Friday, giving people a chance to view the vehicle.

Cape Girardeau's library foundation is considering purchasing a bookmobile for the city.

The 30-foot-long bookmobile, built by Ohio Bus Sales of Canton, Ohio, will be on display Friday at 10 a.m.

Terry Risko, director of the Cape Girardeau Public Library, said a bookmobile is a priorities for the library this year.

"Have books, will travel," Risko said.

The library foundation is preparing a campaign to fund a bookmobile locally. The drive is tentatively scheduled to begin in October.

"This visit is before our kickoff," Risko said. "But it was coming into town anyway. And it's kind of an interesting way to get individuals interested in a bookmobile."

Earlier this year, Risko attended a national library convention and talked with manufacturers of bookmobiles. One of those manufactures was Ohio Bus Sales.

"They called and said they would have a bookmobile in the area and would like to bring it by," Risko said.

The vehicle which will be here Friday would cost about $70,000, Risko said.

Risko, whose first library job was driving a bookmobile, said a bookmobile would allow many more people access to the library's collection.

"Because of where the library is located and the lack of public transportation in Cape Girardeau, a bookmobile is a perfect way to service people, especially children, who have no way to get to the library."

"A bookmobile would be like a branch of the library," Risko said.

A bookmobile would have a rotating collection of 5,000 books selected from the library's main collection.

"If a bookmobile goes to schools, it would be a tremendous addition to the school's library."

Risko said the bookmobile would be restocked with books before every run.

"We would totally rotate the collection every week. We could take it to parks in summer time and have books in parks and children's story hours."

Risko said some bookmobiles have built-in puppet stages.

"This is big city stuff," he said.

In talking about the possibility of a bookmobile, Risko said, several people told him they didn't really know what a bookmobile looked like.

"This is a chance to see a bookmobile and begin to ask questions," he said. The visiting vehicle probably will not have any books, he added.