As Sussex County officials grapple with declining revenue, even the revered bookmobile has not be spared the budget-cut chopping block.

At the Tuesday, March 31 meeting, county council approved a plan to cut the bookmobile’s operation back from five days to two days starting in July. In addition, one of the two employees on the mobile library will be reassigned. County Administrator David Baker said the cuts would realize a savings of $40,000 next fiscal year.

Circulation via the bookmobile has slipped more than 25 percent over the past two years, and the cost per circulation has risen to more than three times the cost at a regular library.

Even county librarian Carol Fitzgerald had to admit fewer and fewer people are using the bookmobile. “Demographics have changed. People have not used it,” she told council.

For more than 30 years, the bookmobile has been taking the library to the people of Sussex County who may not otherwise be able to get to one. Words on wheels have been the mission of libraries across the country since before the automobile.

In Sussex County, the county’s two bookmobiles have traveled more than 300,000 miles since the late 1970s, averaging about 10,000 miles per year.

The first bookmobile was retired after more than 200,000 miles.

The stops change, yet the mission has always remained the same, says Fitzgerald. “We try to reach those who otherwise would not have access to a library,” she said.

With the county facing a $5 million to $7 million deficit this fiscal year and an even greater shortfall expected in 2010, every program is being evaluated. The bookmobile is among the first of the highly visible county programs to take a hit.

Fitzgerald said she is well aware of the county’s economic situation. “We are looking at other ways of doing it – other than just the bookmobile,” she said.

She said outreach programs could continue in other ways. Instead of stopping at day-care centers, a county van will be used to set up collection points with story times provided.

She said other options include books by mail and setting up book-exchange points, similar to an operation run by librarian Mary Titcomb, who is credited with setting up the first bookmobile in 1905.

The county funds most of the operation of the bookmobile. This fiscal year, $188,000 has been budgeted to run the program, $5,000 less than the year before. State funding helps purchase materials.

Part of people’s lives

But that doesn’t mean the bookmobile is not an important part of life for county residents. Alison Jernigan, who has been working on the bookmobile for 20 years, said loyal bookmobile clients are anxious and waiting for the big, white bus. “They will be calling if we are one minute late,” she said.

Even in these days of internet and easy access to technology, Fitzgerald said, there are still people who simply can’t get to a library.

“There are people who still want to hold a book. There is a joy in holding and reading a book,” Fitzgerald said.

But, while circulation at most libraries in the county has increased over the past three years, circulation of materials on the bookmobile has slipped from around 14,000 in 2006 and 2007 to under 10,000 in 2008.

On a regular schedule, stops are made at nursing homes, group homes, day-care centers, schools without libraries, manufactured home parks and housing complexes.

That schedule will be abbreviated starting in July with stops at institutional and congregate care facilities and schools just two days a week. The bookmobile will also be available for fairs and festivals and to help when new libraries are under construction.

The county budgets $1.7 million on its county libraries – South Coastal, Milton and Greenwood - and provides about $1.9 million each year to 11 other local libraries in the county. In all, the county has budgeted $5 million on libraries in fiscal 2008-09, which is a minimal increase from last fiscal year and a $700,000 increase from fiscal year 2006. The total also includes nearly $1 million for library administration.

Fitzgerald said the Greenwood and South Coastal libraries used to be the busiest bookmobile stops.

The two staff members, Jernigan and Melissa Millman, share driving duties and total about 10,000 miles a year in the mobile library. Both have commercial driver’s licenses.

The bookmobile is a mini-library on wheels and contains books of all sorts, including large-print and paperback books, magazines, DVDs, CDs and books on tape.

Jernigan said the job is sometimes bittersweet. A few yellowed obituaries tacked to a small bulletin board are testament to that.

“I enjoy our visits to nursing homes, but I miss the people when they pass,” she said.