Nancy Boczon was able to find a few mysteries.
BELOW: The current bookmobile is scheduled to be replaced later this year.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Ron Hayes
On Nov. 8, 2013, the Palm Beach County Bookmobile made its debut stop at the Ocean Ridge Town Hall, filled with books, CDs, DVDs and high hopes.
A year later, the books, CDs and DVDs were still there, but the hopes had failed to soar.
When the library reluctantly decided to eliminate the Ocean Ridge stop last November, the only regular borrower was Briny Breezes council President Sue Thaler.
“I read like a fiend and went to the bookmobile every two weeks when it came last year,” she explained. “I was crushed when they told me the Ocean Ridge stop was being discontinued.”
Why not come to Briny? she asked Ron Glass, the county’s outreach librarian, and beginning May 8, they did.
“They were able to start even sooner than we asked,” Thaler said, “and the turnout on the first day here was amazing. I think at one point there was a line out the door.”
Ocean Ridge’s loss was Briny’s gain.
“We just didn’t get the turnout in Ocean Ridge, but here it’s been great,” Glass reports. “There’s a small-town feel to Briny, so the word gets out. From our very first day, they were here.”
Every other Friday at 1:30 p.m., the 40-foot bus parks beside the community center for a 45-minute visit, and judging by the turnout July 17, the service isn’t likely to be canceled for lack of interest.
“This is the noisiest library I’ve ever been in,” Brinyite Nancy Boczon marveled as she waited to check out mysteries by Janet Evanovich and Mary Higgins Clark. “The only trouble is, you come here on Friday and spend your whole weekend reading. But it gets everybody together for a few minutes.”
Briny Breezes is the latest of 43 sites where the bookmobile brings its offerings.
“We carry 1,500 items on the bus and have another 1,500 in the warehouse,” says Glass. “We swap them out depending on the sites we’re visiting that day.”
For the route’s five elementary schools, Glass stocks up on children’s books. For Briny, not so much. Here, he makes sure to carry DVDs, books on CD and large-print editions.
“Lately, we’re also making an effort to carry more newer titles,” he adds.
Kathy Gross, picking up DVDs of Interstellar and Horrible Bosses, praised the bookmobile’s pre-order service. “I can order books or DVDs and they bring them,” she said. “I love the simplicity of it.”
The arrival of the bookmobile means Briny Breezes can now boast two libraries, but town librarian Donna Clarke isn’t threatened by the competition.
“You know what?” she said. “There’s so many readers here there’s enough to go around. We have plenty of business.”
Glass concurs. “We’re the piggyback for them,” he says.
And while the bookmobile hauls about 150 DVDs, plus a book of titles from which users can order others, the town library has seen its own collection burgeon to nearly 300 since Clarke arrived in January 2014.
But while the bookmobile outreach will be visiting Briny indefinitely, the bookmobile itself will not. With 104,000 miles of mobile booking, the current, 2006 bookmobile is ready for retirement, Glass said, and a brand-new bus has been ordered and should be in service by May 2016.
“The new bus will be a Bluebird, like a school bus, and 4 feet shorter, but with the same layout. We’re only going to lose two shelves and it will be better for parking in smaller spaces more easily.”
For which Holly McCarthy, checking out the novel The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant, and the DVD of Boyhood, is grateful.
“I do love this,” she told Glass. “Thank you for coming to Briny.”
The Palm Beach County Bookmobile will visit the Briny Breezes Community Center from 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. on these Fridays: Aug. 14 and 28, Sept. 11 and 25 and Oct. 9 and 23. On Nov. 6, the stop will expand to one hour. Anyone with a county library card can use the service.
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