Cambridgeshire’s mobile libraries recently celebrated 60 years of service, delivering books and much more to both rural and urban communities across the county.
The first ever recorded mobile library stop in Cambridgeshire was in Longstanton.
The nearest postcode and current stop in Northstowe is now one of the service’s most popular stops and was a fitting place to hold the celebration.
Last Friday residents, councillors and members of the library service, past and present, gathered at Northstowe’s library stop to celebrate this milestone.
In 1964 “Can't Buy Me Love" by The Beatles was the UK’s biggest-selling single, Mary Poppins packed out the cinemas and mobile libraries were making their first-ever rounds in Cambridgeshire.
60 years on and the mobile libraries have been serving Cambridgeshire’s rural and urban communities ever since.
Each library carries more than 3,000 items of stock, with the service issuing around 4,500 books each month.
Mobile libraries enable potentially isolated people and those in rural areas to stay connected and independent by borrowing books, audio books, magazines and jigsaws, buying stamps and reading glasses and even collecting free walking stick ferrules and hearing aid batteries.
Councillor Tom Sanderson, chairman of Cambridgeshire County Council’s communities, social mobility and inclusion committee, said: “When mobile libraries visit a community they bring so much more than books – they bring social connection, support and opportunities to potentially isolated people."
Cllr Firouz Thompson, Cambridgeshire County Council’s local member for Longstanton, Northstowe and Over, added: "It’s hugely valued here and always lovely to see the engagement with people of all ages – especially young children.”
Jane Grant, a retired mobile librarian of 15 year’s service, said: “Our readers also became our friends – and occasionally I was the only person they saw that week."
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