Happy (Vietnamese) New Year

The staff of the Branch Bookmobiles wish you a happy and prosperous 2008! More than 300 people hopped on the bookmobile to celebrate with us as we rang in the Year of the Rat at the Vietnamese Tet Festival in San Francisco's Little Saigon district on February 3rd. Team effort is the name of the game in 2008: Keith got the ball rolling contacting organizers, The Friends of the Library paid our way, Dennis pitched in with help on board, and Jimmy brought his old friends from his lion dancing troupe to give us their blessing. If this is how the Rat rolls, pass the cheese!

In Your Neighborhood

View Larger Map

Many people have seen the bookmobiles at the glamorous special events (see posts below), but we do have a "day job." :-) Above, you can click on the interactive map of the current and future Bookmobile locations. Current bookmobile locations are indicated by the blue bus icons, and future locations will be indicated by the red push-pin icons. Click on the icons in the map above for more information about these bookmobile locations. See you around the neighborhood!

[NEWS FLASH! Potrero Bookmobile location hours are likely to change. Watch this blog for details!]

Fall Festivities

Hello again,

We've been busy! Maybe you've seen us around? In addition to our regular stops, October has been party month on the Branch Bookmobiles! On October 13, we chugged way up one of the steepest hills in San Francisco, for the Potrero Hill Festival. We were right next to the bouncy inflatable castle, the bubble loops, and across from the boy scouts -- we were in pretty good company!

Just last weekend we could be seen in the Haight for the Halloween Hootenanny, held at the corner of Stanyan and Waller, near the Kezar Pavilion. A spooky good time was had by all. Check out pictures of the book pilots and their festive friends here.

Hitting the Streets

The Branch Bookmobiles have been in action all this time, but the BookmoBLOG has been in in the shop for a tune-up. Now it's time to open the garage door and get back on the information superhighway. We've got lots of fun events down the road and a few in our rear view mirror. The Book Pilot will try to update you now and promises to pull off the road and blog more frequently from now on.

Most recently, the BIG Bookmobile visited Visitacion Valley for the Leland Avenue Street Fair, on Sunday September 9th. We had more than 350 visitors on Sunday. Parked next to the music stage and right in front of the Visitacion Valley Branch Library, the Bookmobile was the center of the action. Check our a few pictures of the vehicle, visitors and staff here. Thanks Keith, Jimmy, Terry, the Staff of the Vis Valley Branch and the Friends of the Library for their help.

Start the Engines

Hello from Behind the Wheel of a Bookmobile,

This blog is meant to share interesting facts about the Branch Library Improvement Program Bookmobiles in San Francisco. This is an important group of bookmobiles: they serve the people in communities where their branch library is closed for much-needed renovations. We bring new and exciting books, DVDs, and hold requests from the big library system to the neighborhood that is missing its library.

Find out more about the program here:

BLIP Bookmobiles

In the coming weeks, months and years, this bookmobile web log -- BookMoBlog -- will be your unofficial source of information about these exciting vehicles, the bumps in the road, and the interesting people and sights we will encounter along the way.

So, step aboard. We've been expecting you! Did you bring your library card?