In a delightful post at BookRiot.com, blogger David Attig offers some of his research on bookmobiles and libraries in out-of-the-way places.
In one example, he writes about “a delightful twist on the Pack Horse Library. Since 1990, teacher-turned-mobile-librarian Luis Soriano has brought books to thousands of children in rural Colombia, all from the back of a donkey. The biblioburro, as Soriano calls it, helps poor children have access to more books and thus a chance at a better education. ‘That’s how a community changes and the child becomes a good citizen and a useful person,’ Soriano told CNN. ‘Literature is how we connect them with the world.’ Soriano and his biblioburro are the subject of a children’s book by Monica Brown and John Parra, proceeds from the sale of which go to support Soriano’s work.”
“Derek Attig writes and teaches about book culture, technology, and history,” says BookRiot. “In addition to writing a book about bookmobiles in American life, he blogs at Bookmobility.org.”
Read the whole post at BookRiot, where you will find a Works Progress Administration bookmobile visiting Bayou De Large, Louisiana, pack horse librarians posing in Hindman, Kentucky, a booketeria in a Nashville supermarket, a vending machine library at a Bay Area school, a library at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, and more.
Photo: Luis Soriano
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
What a lovely picture!
It reminds me of the camel library in Mongolia, https://suzannesmomsblog.com/2015/03/07/camel-library/
I remember hearing this story last year from Little Springtime–it’s lovely. (here’s my post about it)
Thanks for the link. I don’t remember that one, but I probably did see it. I try not to miss any of your posts.
Please don’t feel obligated to try! I confess to catching most, but not all, of yours… it’s the way things go.
I’ll check out the Book Riot post, though, for those other traveling libraries!
It’s interesting that some traveling libraries have been started by teachers who decided that getting books in the hands of children was probably the most important thing they could do.
I agree!
Wow, another of the ones in the Book Riot post was also one posted about, but on Tumblr (the one in Louisiana).
The Internet sure promotes borrowing (cannibalizing?). I like to give the chain of credits … if I know it.
You do an excellent job. It’s hard to find out where something was first, and some things get talked about simultaneously–a zeitgeist thing.
This fills me with hope. It is so hard to get my kids ( I teach middle school in central ma) to read a book that looks tattered and worn. While technology has opened many doors to reading, I think that many kds still don’t understand the global problems surrounding literacy. I am absolutlry going to share this with them!
I don’t think this would work in middle school, but I could see burying the most tattered books for younger kids and digging them up like treasure and looking for “clues” about something.