Good news for less mobile readers in Rijeka.
New library van of the Rijeka City Library will be introduced in December, and will start driving through the streets of Rijeka in January next year. According to director of the City Library Gorana Tuškan Mihočić, the route will be significantly altered in comparison to the current stops for existing bookmobile, reports Novlist on November 10, 2015.
“The route will likely not be changed immediately, but the biggest news is that we will introduce more afternoon shifts and more stops. Also, the van will go to the streets which the larger bookmobile could not enter. The van will be refurbished by 2 December, and then we have to equip it with computers”, the director said.
The new vehicle will completely take over the job of the current, 25-years-old bookmobile which will be sold off. “We are aware that the bookmobile will not bring us much money, but for us every bit of income is important”, the director said. The purchase of the largest van available in the market for 312,000 kuna was financed partly by the City Library, and partly by citizens who participated in the “Push the Bookmobile” campaign drive.
A great number of citizens took part in the initiative and collected 80,000 kuna for IVECO Daily van. The current library on wheels program has about a thousand members, and the bookmobile services are also used by more than three hundred members of the Rijeka City Library regular outlets. The bookmobile department has about 20,000 books in total, with about 3,200 books filling the bus every day. The new vehicle will be able to accommodate a smaller number of books, but will tour a far greater number of kindergartens and city districts where there is no library. The van will ensure continuity of the book-on-wheels service, which has been active in Rijeka since 1969 and was one of the oldest in the former Yugoslavia.
