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From Family Resources of Rutherford County, "This is such an amazing service for our community," they commented on Facebook.
"The entire library staff is very happy to finally have it onsite," said Library Director April Young, who also thanks the many donors who made this dream come true.
The primary bookmobile crew will be Kenneth Odom and Mary Katherine Toney who will drive the library throughout the county.
"It's a library on wheels," said Odom, field services director. "Everyone is so excited.
"We can't wait to provide a library in a lot of unserved areas," he said.
"Everyone is so excited," he said.
"This is a great service to bring back to Rutherford County," he said.
The bookmobile stops will also include areas such as Honeysuckle Park in Cliffside, Grahamtown, Ingle's in Lake Lure, Washburn Community Outreach in Bostic, TP Food & Fuel in Ellenboro, Morse Park in Lake Lure, the Gilkey Community Center and the Union Mills Learning Center, just to name a few.
Among the scheduled stops already announced are the Little Cubs Learning, Sunnyside Retirement Home, Morse Park, Cane Creek Baptist Church, Golden Valley Clubhouse, and Out of the Ashes.
The bookmobile route will be published on the Rutherford County Library website rutherfordcountylibrary.org when it is finalized beginning in the next few days. Routes will be evaluated and adjusted at least every six months to ensure the bookmobile is serving the county as a whole, Young explained. The bookmobile will serve people throughout the county as it will have 40 scheduled stops in areas that may not have access to libraries.
Each location on the schedule will be visited once a month, on the same day each month (i.e. "first Thursday of the month at 11:30am"), explains library staff.
The 40 stops will be a combination of "community" stops where all members of the general public are invited to visit and "private" stops at locations like daycares and nursing homes/assisted living facilities.
"It's so much more than books," Odom said.
On board the bookmobile will also be movies, games, music and ebooks for all ages. In some areas there will be access to the internet and even television screens to set up programs in the outlying areas.
There is a wheelchair lift at the back of the bus that will allow disabled patrons to come aboard the library.
Items that may not be available on a certain day, may be requested just like visiting a regular library location, Odom said.
The return of the bookmobile is due to the generosity of many individual donors and groups that helped make the dream of so many people come true. The largest donors are RHI Legacy Foundation, Carolina Foothills Foundation, Friends of the Mountains Branch Library, Rutherford County Library Society, Hickory Nut Gorge Foundation, Duke Energy, Broad River Water, Ohmstead Plumbing, and Lyn Weaver of Sotheby's International Realty. The bookmobile project was supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (IMLS grant number LS- 250229-OLS-21).
For anyone wishing to donate to help continuing to outfit the Bookmobile with library materials are encouraged to do so. Donations may be made online using the "Donate" link on the library system's website, in-person at County, Haynes, or Mountains Branch Library locations, or via mail. If mailing a donation, please make the check or money order payable to "Rutherford County Library Society" or the "Friends of Mountains Branch Library" and mail to: Rutherford County Library, attn: Bookmobile Fund; 255 Callahan Koon Road, Spindale, NC 28160
The "Library Society" and "Friends of Mountains Branch" are the Library Friend's groups affiliated with the Rutherford County Library System. Both are tax-exempt 501(c)3 non-profit organizations registered with the Internal Revenue Service.
