BooKMoBiLe's SuPer GreaT-GraNdFaTheR

The first mobile library in Britain is thought to be the Warrington Perambulating library in 1859. This horse drawn vehicle was run by the Warrington Mechanics Institute to increase their annual circulation of books. The cost in the first year was £275 but the library lent nearly 12,000 books.

The first Bookmobile in the United States was developed by Mary Lemist Titcomb (1857-1932). While employed at the Washington County, Maryland Free Library, Titcomb was concerned that the library was not reaching all of the people it could. So, she worked on a plan for a book wagon. In 1905 the Washington County Free Library provided the first book wagon in the nation to residents by taking the books directly to their homes in remote parts of the county.

The Gerstenslager company specialized in building mobile libraries and similar vehicles in the 1950s.

The Internet Archive Bookmobile prints out-of-copyright books on demand, and in whatever type size is desired. The project has spun off similar efforts elsewhere in the developing world.