A review by nerfherder86
Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America's First Bookmobile by Sharlee Glenn

5.0

Outstanding book! A biography of Mary Lemist Titcomb and the story of how she developed the "book wagon" in 1905 at the Washington County Free Library in Maryland, a very rural county around Hagerstown and into the Blue Ridge mountains, forming the first countywide bookmobile service. She was born in 1852, and went to an all girls' academy when that was a rare thing, for girls to be educated. She found her calling was librarianship, but it was before any formal schools for training existed, so she apprenticed in Concord Mass. as an unpaid assistant. I loved this anecdote: she applied to be a librarian at the Chicago World's Fair (the famous Columbian Exposition) in 1893, but she was turned down--by none other than Melvil Dewey himself! (He said she just wasn't well-known enough nationally, but wished her luck.) She went on to become the Vice President of ALA in 1914--take THAT, Mr. Dewey! Am I well-known enough now?? :-D She worked at WCFL for 30 years, and from her example, and her writing and lecturing about the bookmobile service, book wagons and mobiles soon flourished in other states. This book gives excellent references in the Notes section, of every quote, and also notes any discrepancies in accounts the author found during her research (for example, her year of birth, which she actually fudged so that she could continue working longer! Talk about loving your job!); there is an extensive bibliography; and the author interviewed two relatives of Titcomb. The book is very nicely put together, illustrated with photographs and postcards, and framed with vintage letters, library borrower cards, and stamps, etc. It was the winner of a 2020 Norman A. Sugarman Children's Biography Award Honor, deservedly so.