Letter to the Editor: Quincy’s bookmobile once provided an important link to downtown library

Quincy has not had an operational bookmobile in service for more than 20 years when age and repair costs combined to end service for Quincy’s 1970s-era bookmobile in the 1990s.

When I learned from a friend in Quincy that an effort was underway to reinstate the bookmobile, I was surprised that it had been so long since Quincy had offered that library service. It turns out several communities have ended their bookmobile service. Bookmobile numbers have shrunk from 1,125 in 1991 to about 650 in 2021.

While fewer bookmobiles are in operation, there has been somewhat of a resurgence in bookmobile use in the last several years. For example, Raleigh, N.C., relaunched its bookmobile service in 2023 with a special emphasis on adding stops to reach children to increase their access to books. Preliminary numbers appear to demonstrate that increasing resources improves reading scores.  

New York City recently launched a bookmobile program using smaller Sprinter vans with about 1,000 books on board to reach areas without easy library access. For underserved areas, the bookmobile can provide a vital link to the world of reading.

While these recent examples are encouraging, many folks who might contribute may well not even remember when Quincy’s bookmobile provided an important link to the downtown library.  

The bookmobile model of transporting books to people without easy access to a central library has served the Quincy area for more than 90 years. In fact, Quincy and Adams County played an early leading role in the western Illinois region to establish access to free public library service before communities could afford to build a stand-alone library building. In those days, a mobile library service had scheduled stops at stores and junctions in farm towns throughout Adams County.

The federal Civil Works Administration helped counties staff and fund mobile libraries in the Depression era of the 1930s when almost a third of all counties did not have library service. Adams County was the first of six west-central Illinois counties to roll out a functioning bookmobile when, on Oct. 1, 1934, it established its first commitment of free public library access, albeit in the form of a panel truck that navigated country roads around Quincy to connect people with books.  

The rural residents of Adams County looked forward to the scheduled stops of the old Ford truck with its 2,500 books in circulation. The Illinois State Library Heritage Project reported the distribution center was a place called “The Bookshop” at the “junction of all the hard roads into Quincy.”

Quincy’s library got its own bookmobile after leasing a state-based unit for two years in 1962. It was a brand new Gerstenslager, a behemoth of a vehicle, designed to take a driver, a librarian and more than 2,000 books directly to the community. 

I remember the Gerstenslager, because in the mid-70s as it was nearing the end of its service career, Quincy Library Director Caroline Sexauer hired me to drive it for two weeks when its regular driver was on vacation.

Our family was frequently at the old library downtown. My grandmother, Isabel Stark, worked part-time evenings at the circulation desk. My mom, Maggie Thomas, had reported on news stories about the library for radio and TV. I got dropped off there frequently while my grandma was working and became a regular. My favorite places were back in the stacks, where the Dewey decimal system-arranged collections took me on boat adventures and to historic battles while my grandmother finished her shift.

Years later in the mid-70s, I was on summer break from Quincy College and did volunteer work for the library, running down overdue books. I would get addresses for where they were checked out, then drove to the house to help get the books back into circulation with no fines levied or questions asked.

A message was relayed to me one day that the library director wanted to speak with me. I was a little concerned that my repo man style had drawn fire from some quarters in the administration. But when I went back to her office, Ms. Sexauer asked if I wanted to spell the regular bookmobile driver for his summer vacation break. I agreed sight unseen to drive the thing.

When I saw it, I kept it to myself that it was by far the largest vehicle I had ever driven. It had an unsynchronized three-speed transmission and what felt like manual steering.  The Gerstenslager had to be backed into the bus barn each night into quarters so narrow that the mirrors barely cleared its neighbors.

It was a beast to drive in August. I clearly remember my great relief in bringing it to each of its stops so I could plug it into the electric box that turned the air conditioning on. When I drove the old Gerstenslager, it carried a driver and librarian. Cassette tapes, records, posters and books could all be ordered inside the bookmobile, then we delivered them the next time we stopped at that location.

With more than 2,000 books on board, things got very hectic inside (especially when school was out during the summer).  Everyone had to get help before it was time to unplug, go to the next scheduled stop and get there on time because people were waiting for us. To encourage book returns, we also accepted books for return to the downtown library. The bookmobile had a program back then that awarded a certificate to kids who had filled out all 10 of the slots on their summer book reading cards. A local merchant donated a free ice cream as a reward.

That Gerstenslager remained in service for a few more years until a replacement was bought in the late 70s.  That short experience with it made me a real believer in what a bookmobile could bring to people in a neighborhood.

Now a fundraising effort, “Bring Back the Bus,” is underway to return bookmobile service with a contemporary unit for the community. The campaign seeks to buy a modern bookmobile. A matching fund donation from the Tracy Family Foundation has created an opportunity for donors to make every dollar go twice as far. Donations need to reach the initial goal of $14,000 to qualify for the doubling grant. 

The library plans to do more than just replace the old Bookmobile with a newer bus.  Bookmobiles these days are actually “mobile libraries,” and the “Bring Back the Bus” campaign seeks to bring a unit that is a modern multimedia resource directly to the community it serves. The Quincy Mobile Library will not just contain books. It will be a connection hub that brings books, internet resources, music, technology and research capacities to people in their neighborhoods, an important resource for folks who can’t easily get to the library. 

“A lot of the community cannot get to the library so it’s important to bring the library to them,” Alderman Ben Uzelac (D-7) in support of the effort. Quincy Library Foundation member Jarid Jones points out that “libraries are the epitome of opportunity.” What could be a more direct connection than for the library to come to those same people it seeks to serve?

Quincy is poised in 2024 to renew a resource link that has played a historic role of opportunity, particularly for people in rural outlying communities when hard economic times meant transportation to town could not be taken for granted. If the resumption of bookmobile service increases access to books, it will encourage more reading, an important goal for community education, particularly during summer months when school is out. For the elderly and disabled, a bookmobile with Americans with Disabilities Act access can visit care facilities, senior centers and community recreation centers to increase access to books and library resources.

I learned the new rig will not only replace the old bookmobile, but it also will be a modern multi-media center for Quincyans to enjoy. It also will certainly have onboard air conditioning for its human operators while en route. One thing that has not changed over the years is that it remains difficult for many people to get downtown to the library. For the young and old, having a mobile library come someplace to a scheduled stop nearby adds a big resource to a neighborhood or senior center.

As the Bring Back The Bus campaign moves toward its first benchmark of raising $14,000, the Tracy Family Foundation match of up to $25,000 will bring the project close to its final goal of raising $49,500 for the new rig.

Please donate to the “Bring Back the Bus” campaign and help bring the mobile library to the people once again. You can find out more about the project at https://www.quincylibrary.org/mobile-library/.

If you want a glimpse of the old Gerstenslager, watch for it in this video:    https://www.facebook.com/quincylibrary/videos/1530896704335837/.

Ray Thomas
Portland, Ore.
Quincy High School Class of 1970