You don’t see many of these anymore. Hard to imagine in today’s online, interconnected world that there was a time when libraries were the main source of non-electronic information and entertainment for most Americans. But even then, there were regions, mostly smaller towns and rural areas, that lacked the resources or population base to sustain their own public library. For those areas, residents were typically served by a “Bookmobile”; a large commercial vehicle with a special body. In the US, the company that provided 90% of these vehicles from the post-war period through 1986 was the Gerstenslager Co. of Wooster Ohio – the picture above is one of their medium-sized, forward-control models from the 1960’s.
Gerstenslager was one of the many custom body builders that flourished in the 1920’s and 30’s – providing custom body work that went over an existing chassis supplied by one of the major truck manufacturers. During this period, its primary customers were the US Govt, which purchased over 5,000 Ford Model A-based small postal delivery vehicles, and moving/storage companies for the company’s large vans.
Post-war, the company was looking to expand, and searched for a niche to exploit – they found one in building mobile libraries; “Bookmobiles.” Communities could choose from several different sizes; on the right above is a smaller version, built on the ubiquitous Ford Vanette chassis, and on the left is a larger model, with chassis by International Harvester.
The Ford could be powered by one of several inline sixes, depending upon model year – a 226 Flathead, a 223 OHV, and finally Ford’s 240 and 300 cu in fleet/truck engines. The IH had the company’s “Red Diamond” inline gas six in 5.2 to 8.2 litre sizes.
High quality craftsmanship made for many repeat customers…
Larger models could also be ordered using a transit or school bus chassis – this one appears to be from White.
Sales increased in the 60’s as larger cities sought to bring books to poorer, disadvantaged neighborhoods that lacked a library annex.
1959 Ward LaFrance with Gerstenslager body
Gerstenslager supplemented the bookmobile business with a line of fire apparatus (both full trucks and special bodies), rescue vehicles, and mobile hospital suites.
They also built the 1952 “Gen 2” version of a this somewhat famous vehicle.
The last Gerstenslager Bookmobile was built in 1986 and unfortunately a downturn in all its products forced the company to discontinue its custom body line in the 90’s, but it is still in business today, providing custom steel stampings to all the major auto and truck manufacturers.
So, when was the last time you saw one of these?
The last time I saw a bookmobile would have been while I was in elementary school living in St. Louis. That ended in 1966 when our family moved away – it’s been a while. However, it appears that bookmobiles are still running around in the St. Louis county area.
The last bookmobile? I’m wanting to say I saw it somewhere near Hannibal, MO, about six or seven years ago. It was smaller, on a F-550 chassis. For reference, Hannibal has a population of 17,000 and is by far the most populated town in Northeast Missouri.
Overall, I think I’ve seen more mobile CT Scan machines in the last ten years than I have bookmobiles.
We had a bookmobile in our town, in Westchester County, NY, at least into the mid-60’s when I was a kid. It made stops at the different elementary schools.
The internet now describes an “amazing new” feature of the library, established in 2008 —
A “Bookmobile” that will.travel the county!
The cube-van bookmobile, probably second in popularity to the converted school bus.
Splendid!
A bookmobile is called a bibliobus here. That’s a combination of the words bibliotheek (library) and bus. These were indeed based on a bus chassis, and they also looked like a bus.
They are still around, although they’ve become rather thin on the ground. But now based on a truck chassis, or even on a semi-trailer chassis.
Below a modern Mercedes-Benz Atego bibliobus. Obviously a bibliotruck.
Here’s a bibliosemi…
Thank you Johannes – I had never heard that word before – “Bibliobus”; first new word of the new year…. Jim.
Jim, have a look at the white Canadian bookmobile Daniel M. posted a bit further down. It also says Bibliobus on its side.
In French: bibliothèque + bus = bibliobus…
My parent’s small town is still visited by a bookmobile on a regular basis. It’s quite popular.
Our community (Santa Cruz, California) has an active bookmobile program with at least one Sprinter as well as a book trailer towed behind a bicycle.
Update: looks like the Sprinter has a larger sibling.
Freightliner? I like the color scheme.
Ames, Iowa still has a very active bookmobile. I believe it is derived from a former Bluebird flatnose schoolbus, though. Saw it just last Tuesday as it negotiated a snowy hill…
I remember loving the bookmobile when I was a kid in the 1960’s. Our small town of 1500 had no library, and the closest one in “the big city” was probably 25 miles away. Worse, it was downtown in that city, and the shopping had already moved to the suburbs so it required a special dedicated trip to go to the library. Didn’t happen often as my mom hated city driving, and worse, city parking. So the bookmobile was it in the summer when the school library was closed.
Ours was a cab-over design, and I remember that bright blonde wood. Sigh, good times.
I’m 38 and I don’t recall ever seeing a bookmobile in my life. I knew they existed, but I’ve never seen one.
My city has three bookmobiles. Two larger Thomas bus based models, plus an M-B Sprinter version. They primarily serve suburban neighbourhoods without nearly libraries.
I recall this RV-based bookmobile from my childhood.
Based upon the Dodge Travco motor home.
There was an abandoned Gerstenslager bookmobile along I-5 at the southern end of California’s Central Valley for years and years. It sat there along with a couple of other pieces of discarded heavy equipment. It was all finally carted off and no doubt crushed a couple of years ago.
I couldn’t find a picture of our local bookbike trailer, but at least two of our neighboring counties have bookcycles, one a fairly conventional trailer like ours, but the other (San Mateo) has a mini-bookmobile, albeit with 3 wheels and electric power. Photo from the San Jose Mercury News.
enjoy:
“Mobile libraries” are still relatively common here in Scotland, even more common now are mobile bank branches (usually Ford Transit based).
More remote areas in the highlands and islands are served by the Screen Machine, which is a (iirc) Volvo FM semi with a trailer which expands to become a tiny cinema.
There are “playbuses” for kids and a bus based travelling art gallery.
There are still Book Buses active in Sweden, about 90 of them, or about three in every county. They are mostly a help for school children and the elderly, regularely touring the country side. But also in cities, there’s a stop att the other end of the building I’m living in, it has its own dedicated bus stop and time table, it stops there for a day every month. I remember them visiting My school regularely as a kid. As an off shoot of the county library, it’s a great way of returning books without having to go into town. They usually Keep a selection of the most popular books, newspapers and magazines, and you can also have ordered books delivered on the route.
I used ours in the late 50’s. In a neighborhood full of non-driving mothers of single-car families, those were the only books you were going to see in the summer. I also remember it being full of blond wood. Looking back, you’d think the interior would be steel, being a truck and all, but it was a library and was going to look like one.
On a related note, sort of, the dental service bus…
Oh the horror when the “schooltandarts” (school dentist) parked his mobile funhouse right in front of the classrooms’ windows. Immediately followed by relief, as I knew I didn’t have to go there. Our family’s dentist was in a town nearby – two visits a year…
The local Miami-Dade homeless foundation (Chapman) has its own dental truck.
Kenosha Public Library still has an active bookmobile, a converted bus. They stop at elementary schools, day cares, and areas in the county where getting to one of the libraries would be a long drive.
Our county library’s bookmobile was a trailer towed by, as I recall, a medium-duty Chevy cab-over of late ’60’s – early ’70s vintage. Our town had its own branch, but there were smaller towns where such a vehicle came in handy.
As a kid, I remember these vehicles used as mobile TV studios for the local TV station.
Now days, they can link to a satellite from the back of a mini van.
As an elementary school kid in the early sixties the bookmobile came to our big city school perhaps every two weeks? That bookmobile was definitely based on a bus chassis. Edmonton had at least a couple of them roving around the city. Far less schools back then when the city had a population of less than 400,000.
I don’t recall the last time I saw one. I doubt any are used today. Libraries are on tight budgets and a bookmobile would hardly be a priority now.
Last saw one at my elementary school, in Houston, spring of 1972; they always seemed to have cool, unusual books.
Baltimore County, MD still has some – I’ve seen them driving around the Beltway.
http://www.bcpl.info/hours-locations/mobile-library-services
“When Was the Last Time You Saw a Bookmobile?”
When I went to work last Friday, 🙂
Here’s ours in the holiday parade.
“Other duties as assigned”
As far as a genuine Bookmobile that would have been a long time ago. As far as a modern mobile library goes I still see one quite frequently as I regularly drive by one of the local county library branches where one of their Library 2 Go Sprinters is based out of. So pretty much any time I go by in the evening or on Sundays it is there on the side of the lot.
http://www.historylink.org/File/20386
Last time I saw one was last week in Erlangen, Germany. The public library operates its Fahrbiblothek (driving library), serving several schools. In Munich, I usually see BücherBus (books bus) here and there.
Gerstenlager is German for barley layer/site.
Powell’s Books had a bookmobile at their location in Beaverton by the old ViewMaster factory but I have not seen that since they moved in 2004 or so. I think the Washington County Oregon system also had at least one bookmobile until around 2000 or so.
A US Bookmobile Was Featured at the US National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959:
https://bookmobiles.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/the-strange-case-of-the-bookmobile-that-went-to-moscow/
“The Strange Case of the Bookmobile That Went to Moscow
Residents of the upstate New York town of Delmar were flattered when they learned that their newly-acquired bookmobile would first be on display in Sokol’niki Park, Moscow, as part of the American National Exhibition of 1959. Sponsored by the US Government, the cultural fair was meant to show off the American way of life to Soviet citizens (The Soviet Union sponsored a similar event in New York City earlier that year). Among the merchandise showcased were appliances, cars, the latest fashions, a hair salon, art, IBM’s RAMAC computer that could answer 4,000 pre-programmed questions- and one bookmobile.
The bookmobile was a huge draw, with thousands of Soviet citizens lining up to walk through the narrow aisle of the vehicle. Initially it was stocked with 4,000 volumes. Visitors were free to browse as many of the titles as they liked, and if one should walk away with a paperback or two, the American staff mostly looked the other way. But the shelves grew increasingly bare. Later visitors were surprised and disappointed at the scarcity of literature. The moving library’s collection was reduced to 1,000 titles before the American officials decided to shut it down.
Hearing this, New York lawyer and later Kennedy aide John C. Bullitt organized a book drive and had thousands of titles airlifted to Moscow. The exhibit reopened with a Soviet policeman keeping a sharp watch over the tourists. It would stay open for the duration of the fair.
The titles that had been stolen varied in genre. Classics were a huge draw, as were books on American and Western art. Also popular were paperbacks, especially mysteries, westerns, romances and science fiction. A book called Lenin on the Trade Unions by Thomas Hammond elicited little interest…
Meanwhile, back at the ranch… In the US, a narrowly focussed fascination with Soviet life did sell some books between the World Wars. I work in a Library in a small town 20 miles north of NYC and we get hundreds of book donations; most of our sister institutions don’t accept them, because the sheer volume can overwhelm storage. But, one outgrowth of welcoming donated books is you never know what you’ll get. A week ago, we received a dusty copy of “Red Bread”, published in 1931 (three printings in that first year) by Maurice Hindus. It’s a memoir of his return to Russia in 1929 to learn how the Revolution affected the peasant village he had left before it all came down in 1917. Slipped into the pages as a bookmark was a tract for a meeting in The Bronx that featured a well known socialist-leaning, English=bred educator named Eveline Burns, who became one of the creators of the New Deal.
Interesting, thank you!
Here is a Russian link to the US automotive displays at that 1959 exhibit, including the GM, Ford, and Chrysler Russian – language brochures handed out to visitors; many fascinating amateur pictures of the US cars, trucks, and boats on display:
http://freedomcars.ru/wri/ussr.shtml
“American National Exhibition in Moscow, 1959”
And I’ve attached a pic of the Delmar Bookmobile, adjacent to a shiny new Edsel convertible that was displayed…
In researching this subject, I’ve run across information that stated that the Bookmobile was from the “DelMar”, e.g. “Delaware – Maryland Library System”; as the article above states, it is from Delmar, NY…
the bookmobile would roll up to the grade school,when I was there and I always wondered why since the library branch was only 5 blocks away I always liked books
and spent a lot of time there
The affluent northern Chicago suburb of Skokie has an active Bookmobile program:
https://skokielibrary.info/about/bookmobile/
“BOOKMOBILE
Our bookmobile is a mobile library that brings books, DVDs, and more to locations throughout Skokie five days a week. You can use your library card to check out and return items just as you would inside the library building…”
According to the Oregonian, there are only four bookmobiles left operating in Oregon. They’re in Tillamook, Baker, Malheur and Benton counties. I’m 60-something, and I’ve never seen nor been in one in my lifetime.
We had an early fifties one that was no longer mobile at my elementary school in the mid 70’s. It was converted to the quickie hearing and eye test lab.
I grew up in Pacific County WA, so I definitely remember the Timberland Regional Library Bookmobiles. Interesting to see a photo of one after all this time. The one that always came to my school was a Ford-based one, rather like the one in the advertising. The last time I saw a bookmobile? About four years ago:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake/curbside-outtake-1947-to-1953-gmc-coe-bookmobile-well-traveled-and-well-read/
The Lansing MI area libraries have one that during the week makes stops at a variety of community centers & apartment complexes.
The current truck seems to be based off some sort of box truck. The previous one was interesting. The cab was a Ford Econoline, but the chassis was front wheel drive, providing quite a low floor for the library part.
I remember a bookmobile visited our elementary school regularly, so 20 ish years? It was pretty unnecessary since the school library itself was actually well stocked, and our town itself had a local library. I get the impression they were a futile attempt to keep the bookmobile concept relevant for our generation of kids.
The last time I saw a bookmobile was when I was in one.
1965-66 or so, myself as a 4th grader.
The bookmobile would park outside my school in Sioux Falls once a month on Wednesdays if memory serves me correct.
Our grade school, one of quite a few in a large suburb of Boston in the mid-1950s, was visited by the system’s bookmobile about once a month (we didn’t have a library, but we got a brand new gym in ’57). I just googled it and found another example of “what goes around, comes around”. The town has recently voted to become a city, and the Public Library System is soliciting donations totaling $150K to buy, retrofit and maintain a bookmobile for the next two years (At the bottom of the flyer, to the right of the main branch address is that of the “Christa McAuliffe Branch”, named after the astronaut from town who was killed in the Challenger explosion in 1986).
Scanning the tract reveals that today’s bookmobiles, like today’s libraries, redefine the definition of what such institutions once were.
I am the publicity manager at my library, and one of the few employees who can leave the building to make book deliveries and pickups. As such, my Subaru Outback can number “bookmobile” among its uses. I also maintain a former ambulance as a hobby, to camp out in and transport bulky items for friends, as well as accept large book donations for the library. Each vehicle has a pair of magnetic signs with the library logo on them that can be applied when the machines are “in service”.
I’m not sure I remember a bookmobile in my growing-up years, but I think there was one. By the 1960s we were served by a slightly larger book trailer at a shopping center (now it would be called a strip mall) a few blocks from us. Then in 1968 a branch library was opened, and that was the end of the book trailer.
The book trailer, as I remember it, was a semi trailer fitted out with bookshelves, carpeting, lighting and air-conditioning. It was a godsend to us as Tucson experienced explosive growth and infrastructure had to catch up.
There are a handful that serve the townships/villages to the north and east of Melbourne, including a 40′ semi trailer, a couple of smaller trucks and a van.
The volunteer fire dept where I grew up liked Gerstenschlager rescue rigs
in the 60’s & 70’s. My brother drove the newer one during his time as a volunteer.
Here’s the one it replaced
We still have one in Barbados; it’s a converted Mitsubishi Rosa coach and goes out to the primary schools that don’t have a library. One of the older ones, which was based on a Leyland FG truck chassis, was used as a canteen on one of our most popular beaches on the south coast for many years until the elements claimed it, while another, based on a Hino chassis with a locally assembled body shared with our minibus fleet, was scrapped to keep those said minibuses running.
The last time I recall seeing a bookmobile was sometime in the 1970s. What I do remember about them was that they were the absolute quietest places on the face of the earth! Once inside, you didn’t speak except in the briefest whisper, and the silence made your ears want to pop.
I wonder whether Gerstenslager manufactured the busses used as highway post offices?
Several years ago when I was last in Little Rock, Arkansas highway post office was parked a few blocks east of the Arkansas State Capitol and the railway depot
I think sometime in the late 80s or early 90s was the last time I saw one like that, and I can’t remember where. I also remember buses being used for roving walkin type check ups, like eye testing, DMV license renewal, etc. But I can’t remember the last time. Probably about the same time the film drop off kiosks disappeared from shopping center parking lots.
A Q&D newspaper search shows communities typically getting 12-20 years’ service before choosing to replace them. Here’s Logansport, IN in 1962–finally replacing the bookmobile put into operation in 1937! (Also has chassis/body prices, if of interest)
There’s a restored Gertenslager bookmobile in Eugene that is used to sell or give away books at community events. The owner is a book lover, and folks give him books for the purpose. I haven’t seen it at an even, so I’m not sure it’s still active, but I did see it parked not long ago. I wrote it up here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classics-1968-ih-loadstar-bookmobile-and-truck-is-there-a-book-on-ih-history-aboard/
That’s Ezra the Bookfinder’s “Gertie”.
Pig Floyd BBQ Bus
Converted
1972 FEMA Disaster Response Vehicle
/-)
Pig Floyd BBQ Bus
Converted
1972 Gerstenslager FEMA Disaster Response Vehicle
Hey y’all!!! I know this thread is old….. But finding anything about a Gerti is like finding hens teeth…lol!!!! Supposedly a 78 Gerti- Gas V8. Any idea on specs or where to get info? Thank…. Love the pics & info.