Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger takes a tour in northern Minnesota on the Northwest Regional Library bookmobile. It’s a bumpy ride for those in the vehicle, but a worthwhile trip for the many readers within the rural expanse.
There are only roughly 10 people for every square mile in the five county region and seven libraries, so the bookmobile is another source to adult readers, teachers, parents, and children. The bookmobile checks out over 40,000 books a year.
MARGARET MOEGLEIN: Westerns are popular. Some romances are popular. Genealogy information.
LEIF ENGER: It's almost 7 o'clock in the Morning, And Thief River Falls librarian, Margaret Moeglein is preparing the bookmobile for its toughest run of the week. There will be seven stops today along more than 250 miles of highways and back roads. It's a lot of prairie. Get comfortable.
[CAR ENGINE REVVING]
Engine warm, lunch packed, coffee in the thermos, off we go. The sun just rising puts an icy glare on the road. The bookmobile sways like a big blue milk truck as driver, Marvin Johnson steers north out of town. Johnson is tall, gray haired, Norwegian, the bookmobiles pilot for all its 21 years. He respects good books and icy roads.
MARVIN JOHNSON: It is rough driving. I've drove a truck all my life. I've drove semis. I've drove trucks in the mines. And this is the worst vehicle I've ever drove for handling when it's windy. It's so top heavy.
LEIF ENGER: The Northwest Regional Library's bookmobile is a good example of why bookmobiles evolved in the first place. There are only about 10 people per square mile in this five-county region. There are also seven libraries, so it's not like most people couldn't ever get to one. The bookmobile just makes it easier, and that ease evidently counts for a lot.
The average library in this area lends out fewer than 30,000 books a year. The bookmobile checks out more than 40,000. Small town schools like this one in Badger are regular stops.
[CHATTER]
A batch of Badger second graders have run to the bookmobile in their shirt sleeves, hugging their elbows and grinning in the cold. Now, they're packed between the two walls of books probing the stacks for Curious George, ruffling through their favorite magazines.
SPEAKER 1: Snow cats, dirt bikes, cars.
SPEAKER 2: Fishing. Fishing.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, fishing also. Computer? Nah.
[CHATTER]
MARCIA WILHELMI: Did everybody remember to bring their books back today? You got to pack your books.
SPEAKER 3: No, only two people.
MARCIA WILHELMI: Only two people brought their books back today?
SPEAKER 3: No, only--
MARCIA WILHEMI: Only two people forgot to bring. Well, that's better.
SPEAKER 4: He's punching me. He was shaking my hand. Then he bended my finger.
MARCIA WILHELMI: I hope you're not all forgetting your library manners today.
LEIF ENGER: Second grade teacher, Marcia Wilhelmi.
MARCIA WILHEMI: Our school burned down, what, three years ago. And so our library is still kind of small. And so, yes, this is a real plus for us. We would just really feel bad without it.
LEIF ENGER: The stops don't last long, an hour or so. There are just too many miles to cover. From here, it's further north to a farm place where the neighbors meet and talk and pick out new books, then to the little towns of Roosevelt and Williams near Lake of the Woods. Finally, on the Canadian border itself, we'll stop near the customs office at Pine Creek.
SPEAKER 5: There he is.
SPEAKER 6: Howdy, sir.
SPEAKER 5: How's it going?
SPEAKER 6: Fair to middling.
LEIF ENGER: On this bookmobile, just about everyone is a regular. Two farm couples get on carrying grocery sacks full of paperbacks, mostly Westerns, a few romances, a book on welding. You live up here, Mabel Salto says. You read and you read. And finally, spring comes.
MABEL SALTO: I take books off from my mother. She's 91, and I take books out for my husband and myself. I read some harlequins, and he likes Westerns. He likes-- what's his name, the one that just died? L'Amour. And my mother likes-- Grace Livingston Hill is her favorite, and she likes Janet Daley.
LEIF ENGER: When the last card's been punched, Johnson shuts the door and eases back out on the highway toward Thief River, accelerating slowly so the books don't slide off their shelves. Seven stops, 12 hours, about 400 books checked out. You get tired on days like this, Johnson says. But there's something about bookmobiling that keeps you around.
MARVIN JOHNSON: I tell you one thing, you get all over the country-- I mean all over the five counties. You meet people every two weeks. You kind of get in with their families and listen to what they've got to say. And you got your own, and everyone's got something a little different things to tell you, and you kind of look forward every time you go. See these people.
LEIF ENGER: Northwest Regional Bookmobile driver Marvin Johnson. This is Leif Enger.
Digitization made possible by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
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