The Mobile Library Comes to Town

The mobile library comes to our village once a month; this is the first time that hubby and I have been around and/or remembered that it was coming so we decided to make the effort to wander up to the high street.

Despite living in Somerset for over two years, we hadn't yet managed to join up to the local library service, so we took along our ID in case it was possible to join up there and then. And, luckily, it was.

The librarian on board mentioned that in the year he's been visiting our village, we were his first 'customers'; I thought he meant that we were the first people to have joined up on board but he said no, we were the first people to actually set foot inside the van in the village. That made me feel extremely sad. He said it's often the case in the more affluent villages, whereas less well-to-do places make better use of the service he provides. That made me feel sad and guilty.

We bumped into some neighbours as we walked back through the village clutching our newly borrowed books (including two books for DC); we told them what we'd just heard about the fact that the mobile library isn't used in our village, they thought it was sad too so I hope they will make the effort to hop aboard and borrow a book or two and also pass on the word that we should use it, or risk losing it.

I am going to do my best to spread the word about the mobile library and hubby is going to put something on the village website; I imagine that some people don't know that it comes to visit once a month, some people are obviously busy when it rolls in, and some people probably forget, but I can't believe we are the only ones in the village who think that borrowing a book (or four) is a great thing to do.