Bookmobile brings the library to rural Idaho areas

INKOM, Idaho (KIFI)—The South Bannock Library District, headquartered in McCammon, uses its Bookmobile to bring books to rural readers without access to a brick-and-mortar library.

The Bookmobile is a converted passenger bus filled with books, audiobooks, and DVDs for all age groups. Throughout the school year, it stops at elementary schools in Downey, Inkom, and Lava Hot Springs.

"We started coming to the elementary schools hoping that we could fulfill a need for homework assignments and whatnot that the school libraries weren't able to give their students," said Megan Short, Library Director of the South Bannock Library District.

The newest Bookmobile is the largest the Library District has had to date. Short said the traveling library is instrumental in providing books to readers who may live far away.

"Marsh Valley is a small population, we have a great amount of land to cover," said Short. "And so, especially for those families that it's a hardship for them to be traveling that much–it's nice to have a mobile library that you can take to them and meet them where they're at."

To learn more about the Bookmobile and its scheduled stops, visit the South Bannock Library District website at www.southbannocklibrary.org.