When seven-year-old Troy Myers wandered into a Dartmouth bookmobile 50 years ago, it was a pleasurable experience that paved the way to a lifelong love affair with books and a fulfilling career in public libraries.
Myers noticed his friends’ homes were stacked with hundreds of books. His own family owned one set of encyclopaedias, but he wasn’t quite old enough to read at the level required to gain benefit from them.
“I remember seeing this parked vehicle and wondered what it was. I watched people walk in and out. Curious, I went in and a person made me feel like an adult. I was used to being kicked out of places, not welcomed,” said the affable Myers, who has been chief librarian with South Shore Regional Libraries (SSRL) for 11 years.
“He told me to look around and gave me a form for my mom to sign. He even gave me my own library card, then said, ‘you know what, kid? I’ll give you four books now.’ I walked home feeling 10 feet tall,” he added.
Myers said the accidental experience had a huge impact on him and helped shape his identity.
“I have been going into libraries ever since. I would like to provide a similar experience to kids around the South Shore. I want kids to find that magic bus just down the road from their homes,” he said.
The South Shore’s current bookmobile, an old retrofitted school bus, is nearing its 12th year of operation, is rusting, and needs to be replaced. To that end, a state-of-the-art bookmobile is being custom built at a plant in Alberta and will be delivered and put into service in May or June. The process started two years ago.
Officials at Intercontinental Truck Body (ITB) noticed steel truck bodies were rusting, ravaged by salt used on roads in winter, so they started building bodies using a unique Snap-Lock wall-panel system, made from high-strength, lightweight, and corrosion-resistant extruded aluminum. As the panels snap together, they form sturdy wall posts that do not require mechanical or adhesive fasteners for a rivet-free exterior and smooth surface.
Myers said ITB constructs nearly all the bookmobiles in Canada and the United States. He said SSRL provided the chassis, then the ITB crew builds the customized body and positions it on the chassis.
“Although it has a different climate than Nova Scotia, Vancouver has a bookmobile built by these guys that has been in service for more than 30 years. They are on their third chassis, though. The lightweight body can be easily removed and placed on a new chassis,” he said.
According to Myers, the new bookmobile will include many convenient features that will prove to be popular.
“We are going to have a more robust Wi-Fi, and because the truck body is lighter, we can increase our load capacity by 20 per cent and create much more shelf space,” he said.
Myers said a boom can be raised high above the roof, allowing Wi-Fi to be broadcast to a wider area, and if a region is affected by an extended power outage, the bookmobile can be left in that community to allow people to come in to warm up, use the Wi-Fi, reach out to loved ones, and charge their electronic devices.
Also, Myers added, “accessibility to all our services has always been a goal for me. A lift will allow people with mobility issues, expectant moms, or parents with small children in strollers to gain easy access to the bookmobile, and the wider interior was designed to make better use of space and won’t be as tight as our old bus.”
The new bus will be staffed by current employees Dave White, Crystal Madill and David Walker.
And while there’s excitement for the bookmobile’s future, it should be remembered the big role it has played in the recent past.
“In the early days of the pandemic, our mobile service was vital to South Shore communities,” he said.
At the conclusion of the interview for this story, Myers recounted how important the bookmobile was to his grandmother.
“Going to the bookmobile was a routine that got my grandma, Katherine Myers, out of the house and walking on a weekly basis. It provided a social network, and reading helped keep her mind sharp. Her active-living routine contributed, in part, to her aging in place in the family home to the ripe old age of 97,” he said.
On books and dogs
Mustachioed and bespectacled American comedy icon Groucho Marx wrote more than 30 books, and for the amusement of his adoring fans, he sometimes expressed witty opinions on books in general.
Cigar in hand, Marx famously opined: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” And this: “Just give me a comfortable couch, a dog, a good book, and a woman. Then if you can get the dog to go somewhere and read the book, I might have a little fun.”
