Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1921-08-19
MOTOR LIBRARY
HELPS FARMERS
Keen Appetite for Books
Created by Novel Plan
of Distribution
"Parnassus on Wheels" Seems Des.
tined to Become Big American
Institution

of culture.
Since then, of course, it has been
proved pretty definitely that exactly
the reverse is true. The automobile
saves such an enormous amount Of
time that people have more oppor-
tunity than ever to read. There is
no danger that the motor car and
culture will ever conflict.
AS a matter of fact, there are a
number of Librarians in the country
today who will tell you that the
automobile is helping them introduce
traces of culture into communities
that would otherwise fail to develop
an appetite for books for years to
come. These librarians are taking
their books to the farms-by auto
mobile. They are introducing the
motorized library, and the success
which has attended their efforts in
dicates that it is one of the certain
American institutions of the future.
Particular success with the motor
lied library is found in the case Of
Noblesville, Ind, a city of about s.
900, situated about 20 miles north Of
Indianapolis. In an exceedingly in
teresting article describing the meth
DDS and results employed in deliver
ing the library to the farmers door,
Miss Lula M. Miesse, Noblesvilles
librarian, says:
1--WE tried both adult and juvenile
stations in schoolhouses and homes
and found the adult section was not
we'll patronized. The country schools
are open only five days week and
only six months year. So the house
to house plan of service was deter
mined upon. We visited some other
cities. where library autos were in
use, and after looking over various
chassis and trucks, we decided upon
a Dodge Brothers business car. In
the first place It did not need great
deal of remodeling for our purpose.
It was strongly built and highly
recommended by people who. were
using it, for durability under hard
service, which we knew our car must
receive.
1.-THE seats were already comfort
able. We had the wire screens and
the entire back removed. The steel
sides we're bent over seven Inches and
used for shelves in front of the book
cases. Inside the Car we built our
book cases of oak, with glass doors
opening outward on both sides OF the
truck, so that it advertises it's own
wares as it travels over the country.
The shelves slant slightly back to
hold the books away from the glass.
"Our territory is now laid in six
teen runs, but we must add at least
five to these in order to cover it.
Some of our trips are long,. Number
one, for instance, is AZ miles long
and begins and ends 10 miles from
We have driven our car
through fresh gravel, mud and over
ice. AS we travel four days a week
we cannot wait for good roads. The
work is very interesting and grows
more so as the Librarians and the
people get better acquainted. The
demand for books has been so great
that it has been almost impossible to
satisfy both the city and the country,
as we were not expecting and not we'll
enough prepared for the voracious
appetite for reading matter which we
created.
"Our library car is called 'Parnas-
sus' after Christopher Morley's book,
'Parnassus on Wheels 1t is a very
interesting little book, about book
peddling. We use an old fashioned
dinner bell to call our patrons. this
being more effective than the horn.
One side Of the car is used for adult
and the other for children's books.
We carry about 800 books on the
shelves and extra fiction and juvenile
books inside. Fiction is in greatest
demand, but we also circulate books
on farming, travel, history, litera-
ture, music, and Bible literature. We
carry fairy stories and bear stories
for the younger children and have
many youthful readers to
Little Women, Tom Sawyer. and Pin
ochio. One great advantage OF our
system to the rural patrons is that
there are no fines attached to books
charged to the library auto cards.
1.-The people in the country think
we made good choice of car, as it
Is a good car, but not the most ex-
pensive. They make many comments
On the car, especially since we have