'Bookmobile' May Help Summer Reading Plans

If you can't make it to the Racine Public Library this summer, it will come to you.

The library's ever-popular "bookmobile," or mobile library, is running on a weekly schedule this summer, and it can bring any library holdings or materials from the Share library consortium to a location more manageable for regional library patrons in places like Mount Pleasant and Caledonia.

Library cardholders, when browsing for library materials online, can reserve holdings to be placed in the bookmobile, and they will remain there for a week. The mobile library weekly schedule for this summer can be found below.

Usage up 18 percent

According to Mobile Library Director Bob Margis, use of this service is on the rise, and one of every nine check-outs from Racine Public Library is done through the mobile service, which he said is very convenient for library patrons not living in or near Racine.

“The book mobile is huge in terms of its popularity,” Margis said. Last year, patrons used the service over 104,000 times, and so far this year, its use has increased by 18 percent.

The mobile library’s summer schedule, Margis said, eliminates the seldom-used school locations due to summer vacation, catering to a clientele that increasingly is reading for leisure.

Library materials can also be returned at the bookmobile, which makes most of its weekly stops Monday through Wednesday.

Here's the weekly schedule for the bookmobile:

Mondays

• Kmart, 2211 S. Green Bay Road, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
• , 5000 Graceland Blvd., 1 - 1:30 p.m.
• 4 Mile Road and Douglas Ave., 2 - 4:30 p.m.
• Lee's Hardware, 1950 Taylor Ave., 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
• Drexel and Delaware avenues, 6:45 - 7:45 p.m.

Tuesdays

• Humble Park, 11 a.m. to noon
• Highway 31 and Highway 20 (northwest corner of the strip mall), 1 to 2 p.m.
• South Park in Sturtevant, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
• , 7130 Spring St., 6:30 - 6:30 p.m.
• Georgetown, Inc., Meachem Road and Taylor Avenue, 7 to 7:45 p.m.

Wednesdays

• Washington and Hayes avenues (behind Bendsten's Bakery), 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
• Fratt School, Kinzie and Arthur avenues, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
• Regency Point, 2406 S. Green Bay Road, 2 to 3 p.m.
• Chicago Street and Dombrowski Boulevard, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
• Kinzie Avenue and Virginia Street, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
• Western Village, Highway 20 and Emmersten Road, 6:45 to 7:45 p.m.

Thursdays

• Shorecrest, 1 to 7 p.m.

Fridays

• Highway 31 and Spring Street, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturdays

• Wright and Perry avenues, 9 to 11 a.m.
• US Bank, Highway K, Franksville, noon to 1:30 p.m.