Bookmobile and Imagination Station - Tulsa

The Tulsa City-County library's Bookmobile is a mobile branch complete with fiction and non-fiction books for all ages, DVDs, CDs, and materials transferred by request from other branches. Patrons with a valid Tulsa City-County Library (TCCL) card can check out materials on the Bookmobile, or sign up to get a library card if they don't already have one.

Bookmobile items can be returned to any TCCL branch, and any TCCL items can be returned to the Bookmobile.

The Bookmobile visits 24 different sites on a bi-weekly rotating schedule. The current schedule can be found on the library's web site. It also attends various area events. The bus has seat belts for two (the driver and one passenger), and requires a commercial driver's license to operate it.

The Bookmobile is part of the Outreach Services department which also handles YLC (Your Library Connection, which delivers books to patrons in nursing homes and assisted living facilities who cannot visit the library), and the Reading Roadshow, which visits elementary schools and day care centers in the Tulsa area that meet certain criteria.

The Bookmobile, decorated for the 2014 Tulsa Christmas Parade

The current bookmobile was purchased used in approximately 2003 and is built on a Thomas bus chassis. It has two air units on the roof powered by a diesel generator that also powers the lights and computers. It has an 84-gallon diesel fuel tank, push-button automatic transmission, and is 36' long by 8' wide. For perspective, It takes up the entire width of a standard parking space and two car-length spaces from end to end. It's roughly the same size as a standard school bus (which was its original configuration, we think).

The decorations on the Bookmobile are a wrap, designed by in-house designers at TCCL.

The Bookmobile's home is currently the Harmon Building at 2901 S Harvard when it's not out and about in Tulsa.

The Outreach Department also has a Transit van for the Your Library Connection deliveries, and recently added the Imagination Station, like a food truck but with books (mid-May 2014) to supplement the Bookmobile and expand the type of events the Tulsa Library can attend.