By Hunter Hine, Staff Writer

(May 4, 2023) Worcester County Library presented its new book mobile at the “Meet your Pop Up Library” event in the parking lot of the Berlin branch on April 26, while attendees enjoyed cake and lemonade.

“We wanted to have a way to celebrate our new Pop Up Library,” said Jennifer Ranck, director of Worcester County Library. “It’s a library on wheels that we can bring to all quarters of the county, and this was a way that we could gather everybody here today and sort of have a meet-up event, have some cake and celebrate.”

The book mobile will have a regularly scheduled route, but it will also visit special events like parades.

“We’re taking it to places like long-term care facilities, child care facilities and getting it into places where people who can’t easily come to the library can still access library services,” Ranck said.

Ranck said the Pop Up Library will serve all ages, but that the Worcester County Library system hopes to specifically target the young and the old, or more generally, people who might have trouble traveling to a stationary library.

Although it’s mobile, the Pop Up Library features many of the same hallmarks of a brick and mortar library. Besides books, it offers public wifi, DVD’s, and it will serve as a vessel for programs like storytimes for different organizations, Ranck said.

People can even sign up for a library card from the van.

As for books, it will hold a large variety suited for all ages.

“I suspect that we will probably have sort of the latest and greatest (books) on our book mobile to keep the collection fresh,” Ranck said.

Any books checked out from the book mobile can be returned to the van, or any other Worcester County Public Library branch, Ranck said. The check-out period is 30 days.

“That gives us time to get back to you, to see you on our route,” Ranck said.

The idea of creating a book mobile was first discussed during covid when all the libraries were shut down, Ranck said.

She said that although it came to fruition a little later then she would’ve liked, Ranck is excited about the possibilities the Pop Up Library will open to get more involved with the community.

This is the first book mobile Worcester County has had in 40 years. The county’s original book mobile ran from 1960-1982, bringing library access to what were small towns at the time like Girdletree, Stockton and Ocean Pines. Eventually, it started having service issues and had to be sold.

“I did see a little news article that a local resident did buy it and turned it into kind of like a camper, or a van, so sort of van-life, 1982 style,” Ranck said.

During the Pop Up Library’s presentation, Ranck introduced Mobile Services Coordinator Amanda Laick, who will be scheduling and driving the mobile library.

Worcester County Commissioner Ted Elder was also there to witness the unveiling.

“We’re very grateful to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Maryland State Library Agency, our Worcester County commissioners and our Worcester County Library Foundation for funding this,” Ranck said.

For more information, visit https://worcesterlibrary.org/.