Mobile Library

Share Your Bookmobile Story

Your Bookmobile Memories

How did Quincy Public Library's Bookmobile impact your life? Share your memories with the community below. 

Quincy Public Library may share my bookmobile memory on its website, social media, and/or in other public communications. If I provided my first name, I also consent for my name to be shared along with my bookmobile memory.

About the Mobile Library

Quincy’s previous bookmobile service was part of the community for nearly 50 years. Generations of Quincyans have fond memories of the bookmobile coming to their school or neighborhood. Sadly, it was retired in 2003 due to budget problems and declining circulation, and since then, Quincy has deeply felt its loss.

We are thrilled to be bringing the bookmobile back with a fresh approach to serving its community. Since 2003, the needs, lifestyle, and social patterns of our community have changed. The Mobile Library will meet these changing needs by offering a comprehensive library experience and increasing access for people who can’t get to the library. While its stops may be different than the previous bookmobile, the heart of the Mobile Library remains the same: to bring the library out into the community and share the joy of libraries.

The Mobile Library will serve the community in three big ways:

  1. Provide early literacy programming and books to daycares and preschool programs.
  2. Visit community living facilities and multi-family housing complexes, offering a collection developed for multigenerational families and lifelong learning.
  3. Visit after-school programs to bring popular fiction and nonfiction books to school-aged children.

The Mobile Library will bring the entire library experience out into the community. In addition to books, this includes:

  • Technology including iPads, laptops, and a document printer
  • Internet access (the vehicle itself will be a Wi-Fi hotspot)
  • QPL’s digital library of e-books, audiobooks, music, movies, databases, and more
  • Knowledgeable library staff to answer your questions and guide you to resources
  • Programming for children and adults

(While we call it the Mobile Library, it’s totally ok if you want to call it the Bookmobile. We love that name too.)

The Mobile Library is equipped with a wheelchair lift, so stairs will not be an obstacle. It will have a collection of large-print books. Books on CD will be available on request.

Our vehicle is in production at Matthews Specialty Vehicles in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is estimated to be delivered in October, November, or December of 2024.

The Mobile Library project is completely funded by grants and donations from private organizations and individuals. No tax money has been used to fund this project. The project budget includes allowances for vehicle maintenance, on-board equipment and technology, collection development, saving for eventual vehicle replacement, and more.

We are currently evaluating how the Mobile Library can best serve the community. To have your neighborhood or organization considered as a regular Mobile Library stop, fill out this quick form.

When the Mobile Library is here, it can go to events in the community. The Library would love to come to special events in the meantime! To request the Library have a presence at your community event, please complete this form.

New Mobile Library Books

Image for "Food Network Magazine The Recipe-A-Day Kids Cookbook"

Food Network Magazine The Recipe-A-Day Kids Cookbook

A recipe a day keeps the boredom away in this kids cookbook full of fun activities and 365 sweet and savory treats from the Food Network Kitchen!

Make every day special with an easy and exciting recipe, whether it’s the first day of school, a big birthday, or just a lazy Sunday.

Kids will flip through this book to find a great idea for every day of the year, starting today, including:

 

  • 365 sweet and savory recipes and photos—one for every day of the year!
  • Holiday cookies and gifts (like doughnut snowmen)
  • Easy food crafts (some use ready-made shortcut ingredients!)
  • Fake-out snacks (ice cream sandwiches that look like mini burgers)
  • Cupcake decorating (flower cupcakes made with snipped marshmallows for petals)
  • Cute bites for April Fool’s Day, Earth Day—and leapfrog cookies for Leap Year!
  • Fun food trivia throughout


It makes an excellent boredom-buster and summer activity book for kids and families or a perfect gift for kids who love to cook!

What’s your birthday? Anyone who picks up this book will turn straight to that date to see which treat falls on their special day! Perhaps it’s the miniature chicken and waffles, or homemade chocolate lollipops, or even a giant pretzel!

Of course, all the big holidays are represented, too—like flag tarts for the Fourth of July or banana mummies for Halloween. And we never miss an excuse to celebrate historic events: You can make star cookies on the day Pluto was discovered.

An easy cookbook for beginners, all the recipes and food crafts were tested in the Food Network Kitchen, so they’re sure to come out perfect every time.

 

Image for "Heroes"

Heroes

The instant #1 New York Times bestseller!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Refugee, Ground Zero, and Two Degrees comes this heart-pounding, inventive, and powerful new novel about the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor... as only Alan Gratz can tell it!

 

December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. With their dads stationed at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, the boys get to soak up the sunshine while writing and drawing their own comic books. World War II might be raging overseas, but so far America has stayed out of the fight. There's nothing to fear, right?

December 7th, 1941: Everything implodes.

Frank and Stanley are touring a battleship when Japanese planes zoom overhead, dropping bomb after bomb. As explosions roar and sailors screa, Frank and Stanley realize the unthinkable is happening: Japan is attacking America! The war has come to them.

Frantically, the boys struggle to find safety. But disaster and danger are everywhere--from torpedoes underwater to bullets on the beach... to the shocking cruelty that their friends and neightbors show Stanely. Because his mom is Japanese-American, Stanely is suddenly seen as the "enemy." And Frank, who is white, cannot begin to understand what his friend is now facing.

If the boys make it through this infamous day, can their friendship--and their dreams--survive? Or has everything they know been destroyed?

Told with the immediacy, high-stakes action, and inventive storytelling that make Alan Gratz (Refugee, Ground Zero) one of today's biggest authors, this riveting look at the attack on Pearl Harbor explores themes of prejudice, power, and what it truly means to be a hero.

Plus: The book ends with an all-original, 10-page black & white comic that brings to life the comic book idea that Frank and Stanley brainstorm in the novel. The comic is written by Alan Gratz and illustrated by Judit Tondora.