Mobile librarians in fiction

There seems to be spate of novels recently about mobile librarians – that is, librarians not in the traditional “brick and mortar” library. Of course, this is nothing new – years ago Masha Hamilton wrote “The camel bookmobile,” about a bookmobile in Kenya. I recently read, “The library at the edge of the world,” by Felicity Hayes-McCoy, which is about an Irish librarian who drives a bookmobile, from time to time.

Closer to home, and more recently, one can find both “Giver of stars,” by JoJo Moyes and “The book woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Michele Richardson, novels centered on the Kentucky Pack Horse library service.  

In researching this blog, I came across Mary Lemist Titcomb (May 16, 1852–June 5, 1932), a librarian who developed an early American bookmobile and helped establish a county library system in Washington County, Maryland. A recent book about her, “Library on wheels : Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s first bookmobile” by Sharlee Glenn, tells more of her story. We have Mary Lemist Titcomb to thank for this wonderful concept of bringing books to the people!