PUBLIC LIBRARY HOPES TO GET GRANT FOR BOOKMOBILE

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- "We need a `bookmobile.' That way we can take the library to the people."

That's how Terry Risko, director of the Cape Girardeau Public Library, summed up his feelings toward a bookmobile here.

Risko assumed duties at the library in early December.

"I've talked with a lot of people," said Risko. "One of the big needs that keeps coming up is that of getting reading materials to all people in all areas. We need a bookmobile."

Funds for a bookmobile are included in Risko's recent grant request to the Missouri State Library.

Risko has plenty of support for his bookmobile campaign.

"A bookmobile and other improvements to the library are subjects of a letter-writing campaign by young school children who will be graduating from high school in the year 2000," said Lauchette Low, a member of the Cape Girardeau Vision 2000 Communications Relations Council. "Vision 2000 supports all libraries, and the schools here are cooperating with us. Every third-grade class (high school graduates of 2000) public and parochial in Cape Girardeau is taking part in the campaign."

The letters will be sent to the Missouri State Library.

"Vision 2000 recognizes that literacy will be an absolute necessity for economic and social survival by the year 2000," said Low. "We further recognize the role that the library plays in helping the fight against illiteracy."

Risko and other library officials say that many readers don't have access to the library because they don't have transportation to and from the facility at 711 North Clark St.

Each week members of the Cape Girardeau Public Library pay a visit to the city's nursing homes and senior citizens apartment complexes.

"We visit eight sites each week," said Risko. "This makes reading materials accessible to the elderly and health handicapped. "But there's still a need out there that needs to be filled.

"With a bookmobile we could set up times and sites in various areas of the city where people could check out books," he said. "We could provide service to a lot of people in the city that are not being serviced now."

The estimated cost of establishing a bookmobile is about $65,000, said Risko.

"Grant monies for various library services are sometimes available," said Risko. "The $65,000 is included in a $73,700 grant request for the library."

A Missouri State Library Committee, composed of librarians from around the state, will go over the grants in late April.

"We're really excited with the bookmobile concept," said Risko. "We're thinking in terms of a vehicle about 26 feet long, which could house about 5,000 books."

Risko said the bookmobile could be operated at no increase to the library's budget.

"I can drive the book mobile," he said. "And, we can utilize one of the clerk's position for a clerk-bookmobile operator."

He said if the grant was approved, the new service could be ready within six months.

Risko, a veteran library director, is no stranger to the bookmobile concept.

"We had two bookmobiles at Saginaw, Mich.," said Risko, who in the Saginaw area before moving to Cape Girardeau. "And when I worked at San Antonio, Texas, we had 15 bookmobiles."