The Bookmobile Roadshow made stops at Acorn Trace Apartments, Rose Lake Estates, and Horizon Bay, while the Cybermobile Roadshow made a single stop at the Cordelia Hunt Community Center. At each location, video and audio recordings of Bookmobile and Cybermobile patrons were captured as they recalled their past experiences on-board the buses and with the mobile library staff, as well as spoke about the reasons that they keep coming back. Some of the people who took part in the Roadshow were newer to the mobile branches but were enthusiastic to share what they already enjoy about the service.
Because the mobile libraries visit several different stops throughout Hillsborough County, future ‘Roadshows’ are being planned at other stops. We encourage you to visit our mobile libraries and see what the buzz is all about!
Link to their schedules: Bookmobile | Cybermobile.
Video and audio memories will be available online starting January 1st, 2014 -- the kick-off of the Centennial Celebration of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library system.
A Brief History of Mobile Library Services in Hillsborough County
During the Depression, Works Projects Administration funds made the first bookmobile service possible. In 1930, the Tampa Public Library began a "bookcar" service, delivering books to the community as a Traveling Branch. Soon after, it would become known as the Bookmobile.
In the 1950s, the bookmobile was known as the "Traveling Branch" and very popular among its users in neighborhoods like Sulphur Springs, Wellswood, Forest Hills, Ballast Point.
During the 1960s, the bookmobile served as a mobile neighborhood branch while library locations were being built or remodeled while also providing an extension of services to rural areas such as Wimauma, Riverview, Gibsonton, Thonotosassa, Odessa and Town N' Country.
