Markeshia Ricks photo
If you see a bright orange truck tooling through your neighborhood, chances are it’s the New Haven Free Public Library’s brand new Readmobile.
The library-on-wheels was revealed on the New Haven Green Wednesday to a group of pre-schoolers from the United Community Nursery School who got a chance to check out the mobile, and get library cards from Mayor Toni Harp.
Harp, an advocate of early reading, was on hand to officially declare the mobile open for business.
“Once you learn how to read, you’ll be reading for the rest of your life,” she told the children.
Harp also shared her five tips for reading: read, read, read, read, and lastly, read.
New Haven Free Public Library Director Martha Brogan said the new mobile replaces one that has been used since 2000, which will be retired.
Denise Duclos, director of the School Readiness Project for New Haven Public Schools, said she and NHFPL Deputy Director Cathy DeNigris brain stormed the idea of having a bookmobile go to preschools that were not close to a local library. They identified 25 preschool programs that would benefit and the rest is history.
“A trip to the library would be a costly venture,” she said. “The bookmobile is like a reverse field trip.”
Harp called the new bookmobile an affordable way to bring a branch of the local library closer to children who might not have easy access in their neighborhoods.
The Readmobile will operate on a weekly basis and will make rounds to 10 early childhood locations and four housing-authority complexes in neighborhoods such as Fair Haven, Dixwell, Morris Cove and the Hill.
I'm all about libraries and preschools, and I visited the old bookmobile. What was wrong with the old bookmobile, and how is the new bookmobile better? I've had a series of 14 year-old cars in my life, and they were pretty good still.
Can we repurpose the old bookmobile somehow for another community benefit? Donate it to New Haven Reads?