News of the county commissioners deciding not to continue funding to keep the bookmobile in Sanpete County and the southern part of Juab County is very upsetting.
I have been working as a volunteer at the bookmobile for 17 years. Our bookmobile is a real service to our communities. For example:
During 2021, 69,226 items were checked out. I don’t know if inter-library loans were included in this total.
Our bookmobile goes to 11 elementary schools and one junior high school. Along with stops in nine communities. These sites are visited every two weeks. We have an inventory of approximately 23,000 items available to be loaned out.
All the services through the bookmobile are free.
By comparison, Mt. Pleasant City charges $25 for each library card. The Mt. Pleasant, they charge for faxes, copies, inter library loans and late fees.
So many people we serve are amazed that all our services are free.
We have many people who come with their own computers and use the Wi-Fi at the library. We have book clubs who order several books at a time for their members to read, and we have several others who go online books to find books to read. I along with many others are not computer literate, so I check out my books to hold and read.
We have books on audio, videos and a large collection of movies for all ages. The library has reading time each week for youngsters and does a summer program for them to keep learning while they are out of school.
The Eccles Foundation invested thousands of dollars on the newFairview library, which it did in memory of Cleone Peterson Eccles. Now if the county commissioners refuse to help fund the bookmobile, we surely will lose the library in Fairview also. It would be a disgrace to Cleone’s memory.
It would be a sad day in the history of Sanpete County.
Kristy Jensen
Fairview
