This Library is on a Roll!

It started with a card table full of books, like these things often do. Just something to sell to raise some money for the Orleans Farmers Market, says Bob Turner. He and his wife Debbie have worked in non-profit for many years and when they realized the market needed some development support they donated their own books and got started. And the donations kept coming in, more used books, more interest in picking out books. So the idea for the mobile library was formed. A church in Louisville gave them a big boost with books leftover from their sale and they've recovered thousands of books from solid waste centers saving them from the landfill. Bob designed a trailer to make storing and setting up all these books at the market easier. Students in the welding class cut the trailer down and the carpentry co-op at the local high school helped craft the finished project. Tripods stored under the trailer and panels on the side come together make tables for the crates of books tucked away in the center. More books are hidden along the built in bookshelves on both sides of the trailer. It's an amazing creation that allows all these books to be available to the folks at the Orleans Farmer's Market on Saturdays all summer long.

They currently have about 4,000 books. You can get them for a dollar or trade in two of your own books. Kids get a free book from the kids' wagon. They've sold over 23,000 books, given 5,000 away to kids, and in total have turned over (with trades) around 35,000 books in their several years in operation. It's a major literacy program for the county in one little trailer.