Board looking to sell vehicle to another town

PASSAIC -- The city's first real bookmobile had a short life.

The van, which the city bought used for $32,900 in the spring and converted into a bookmobile, has been deemed no longer necessary, so the library board wants to sell it.

Last spring, buying a bookmobile seemed like a good idea. The city had announced in February a plan to sell the historic Reid Memorial Library. The 22-foot vehicle couldn't replace the library, but it could help in a small way to fill the void.

Months later the library was saved.

During a library board meeting Wednesday night, newly elected board president Mark Auerbach said the bookmobile must go. He said he supported a recent recommendation from the board's finance committee to sell the vehicle.

Urban areas don't need bookmobiles, he said.

At 3.1 square miles, the city is small. The city's two libraries -- the main branch at 195 Gregory Ave. and Reid at 80 Third St. -- are a mile apart.

Inside the white handicapped-accessible bookmobile are two benches, about 1,000 books and about 40 DVD movies. Books include a dozen foreign-language selections, children's books such as Dr. Seuss' "Fred and Ted Go Camping," and adult books including a Spanish-language copy of "Pregnancy For Dummies."

Auerbach called the van a "poor purchase." He was not on the board last year. Auerbach also said parking the vehicle on the side of the library has been an unsafe spot.

"It's got graffiti on it, it's got dents, and a broken light," Auerbach said. There's a small graffiti mark near the rear of the vehicle, and a small red reflector light on the side of the van is cracked.

Auerbach said he wants to use proceeds from the sale of the van to buy books.

According to bookmobile driver Carlos Rodriguez, a library employee for 23 years who is the head of maintenance, the bookmobile has been driven two Wednesdays a month to "five or six" locations since the spring. He wasn't paid extra to drive the bookmobile, Rodriguez said.

When the library bought the bookmobile the plan was to hire a full-time driver to bring the books to different neighborhoods and institutions every day, Rodriguez said. Before that, the library had a smaller van with two rows of seats in the back that traveled the same route on the same days, he said. But people couldn't enter the van to browse books. That van is now rusty and being used for maintenance, he said.

Rodriguez said the board should keep the bookmobile.

"We could serve a lot of people who can't make it to the library. We have a parking problem (near the main library)," he said.

Bookmobiles started hitting New Jersey streets in the late 1960s, said Pat Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association. Fewer bookmobiles exist today compared with back then. Tumulty said more libraries have been built in rural areas, and the culture of stay-at-home mothers with small children entering a bookmobile at 2 p.m. on a residential street has all but vanished. More moms work these days.

Today bookmobiles are being used to visit places like nursing homes and day-care centers, instead of residential streets, Tumulty said.

Auerbach said he expects the board to sell the vehicle to another library.

"The assumption is, it's been outfitted for use as a bookmobile," he said.