In 2022, Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library unveiled the “Bee.” With the tagline “pollinating the community with good things,” the Bee is not a buzzing insect that collects nectar and produces honey — it’s a bookmobile.
Bookmobiles are vehicles that transport books and other library services to readers who may otherwise not be able to access them, including people who live in remote areas, residents of nursing homes and children whose schools do not have libraries.
The Bee emerged from a need to expand the library’s outreach throughout Ross County.
“There are still spots that we were missing, so we really wanted to try to capture those spots with a bookmobile,” Ruby Smart, outreach manager at Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library, said.
Ohio has a disproportionately large number of bookmobiles compared to other states; since at least 1992, Ohio has consistently ranked among the top three U.S. states in bookmobile numbers.
From sprawling urban hubs to rural Appalachia, from factory workers to Amish communities, Ohio’s diverse landscapes and people may explain the state’s hankering for mobile libraries.
One of the earliest mobile libraries in the country began in Columbus, Ohio, in 1896, with the State Library of Ohio’s “travelling library” program, a horse-drawn vehicle that carried books to rural communities and villages. (The first official bookmobile in the United States is typically recognized as a horse-drawn wagon in Washington County, Maryland, in 1905.)
The first motorized bookmobile in Ohio was at Dayton Metro Library, which delivered to factory workers and residents who lived in outlying locations.
“The whole reason for starting the bookmobile in 1923 was because there were a lot of areas that didn’t have a branch close by,” Rachel Gut, deputy executive director of Dayton Metro Library, said. “At that time, hardly anybody had a car.”
Throughout the early 20th century, other public libraries began to follow suit.
In 1938, for example, Scioto County Public Library launched its first bookmobile in its Portsmouth Branch, a rural Appalachian area.
“[The bookmobile] focus[es] on the pockets of the county where it’s a little bit more difficult for our residents to make it to the library,” Kristin Baker, outreach services coordinator at Scioto County Public Library, said.
Warren-Trumbull County Public Library also instituted a bookmobile in 1938. Now, it largely serves Trumbull County’s Amish population, who often find it difficult to access physical libraries due to a lack of transportation options outside of the horse-and-buggy and Amish taxi.
“[Amish people] are voracious readers, and they cannot get very easily to a physical library,” Alicia Evans, Warren-Trumbull County Public Library’s mobile services manager, said.
As of 2024, more than 85,000 Amish people live in Ohio.
“We are paying attention to the needs of the community, and we understand that one size does not fit all,” Evans said.
Despite this long history, Ohio bookmobile programs are facing challenges, including difficulties engaging with underserved populations who are largely unfamiliar with libraries, recent funding reductions and the popularization of e-books and audiobooks.
“Those areas that have less service are also less familiar with what libraries are and what libraries can do, and less inclined to take advantage of what we can do and can be for them,” Gut said.
Baker has experienced the same problem.
“We do have places where we might park for an hour and we might not see anyone,” Baker said.
According to Baker, Scioto County Public Library has started sending out mailers and putting up yard signs to let community members know when the bookmobile will be at a certain stop.
Dayton Metro Library has also adopted a number of strategies for engaging low-income communities. In Gut’s experience, children in low-income areas are often unsupervised and, for this reason, Dayton Metro Library created Student Cards that allow children to check out up to three items without parental permission.
“If the things never come back, they never come back,” Gut said. “That’s just how it is. We try to be very forgiving on that piece.”
While librarians make efforts locally to close the gap, statewide funding cuts in 2025 hit hard.
Since 2008, Ohio’s Public Libraries Fund has received a percentage of total state tax revenue — a contrast to states like Illinois who fund their libraries primarily through local property tax revenues and grants. However, House Bill 96, signed in June of 2025, means the PLF is now determined by discretionary, or non-mandatory, specific allocations of funds. For fiscal year 2026, the allocated public libraries budget statewide was cut by $25 million from 2025.
“Ohio had some of the best library funding in the country. It was a very proud point,” Smart said. “Unfortunately, that crashed last year.”
The primary reason why Ohio has consistently had so many bookmobiles compared to other states is likely because of its robust library funding structure. In 2023, Ohio had the second-highest per capita public library operating expenditures in the U.S., second only to Washington, D.C.
Librarians are hopeful that bookmobiles that are already in operation will not be drastically impacted by the funding cuts.
“The vehicle is in very good condition, and we already have an established relationship with the community,” Evans from Warren-Trumbull County Public Library said.
Nonetheless, libraries are adapting.
Currently, the Scioto County Public Library bookmobile operates all day, four to six days per week. This schedule might be reduced in the future.
“To my knowledge, we’re not going to do away with the bookmobile entirely, it’ll just be maybe scaled back a little bit,” Baker said. “I think we would just streamline and maybe combine community and school stops on the same day to keep us out less days.”
Librarians are generally confident about bookmobiles’ role in adapting to changing technological advancements that have pushed e-books and audiobooks to the forefront of Ohioans’ reading habits.
For many, physical books will always be a necessity. Evans, who works with Amish people who generally cannot use the internet, said that technological changes are not going to be a concern.
Similarly, according to Smart at the Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library, many children are not interested in e-books or audiobooks, although she acknowledged that “maybe as they get older, that will shift.”
Bookmobiles are also taking advantage of technological developments. Madison Public Library, for example, has a Tech Van — known as “Stan” — that runs events like open computer labs.
“I feel like the library’s place, going forward, will be even more than it is now, outside the physical walls of the library,” Melanie Lyttle, head of public services at Madison Public Library, said.
Gut from the Dayton Metro Library agrees: “It might shift … but do I think outreach services and alternative ways of getting information to people who can’t physically get here will always be around? 100%.”
Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library’s Bee is just one example of the many public libraries across Ohio starting up new bookmobile programs in recent years. In 2010, Ohio had 58 bookmobiles in the state. By 2023, it had 65.
Despite challenges with engagement, funding, and technology, librarians are still optimistic about bookmobiles’ future.
“[Bookmobiles] give access to lower-income kids and families who may not know that the library is a thing that has resources … or people in rural communities who just live too far from a library to get there,” Smart said. “And it brings joy. Everybody’s happy when they’re on the bookmobile.”
