A memory of watching an old 70’s movie about a killer house, led to the fascination of finding new information for one little girl. Every time she walked up the steps of her local library, she felt she was on a mission to discover something new, and hoped to one day share this experience with others.
This little girl grew up to become our very own librarian, Lucy Podmore.
Podmore, with the help of library assistant Amanda Carr, assembled her own library on wheels using an ordinary school bus to transport books to our campus’ students to deliver these opportunities to students, even through a global pandemic.
“This was something I considered implementing when I knew English teachers were requiring an independent reading book for their students,” Podmore said. “We already offer curbside pickup for our students who can drive themselves up to Clark, so this was really an effort to help our students who didn’t have a way to get to Clark on their own.”
The bus took to the streets, decorated with a campus banner, just one week after inspiration struck.
“We work quickly here,” Podmore said. “I just asked permission from our administrators and they were so supportive, asking me how they could help in this effort. Mrs. Carr and I then prepped our materials.”
The bus was used to transport the library carts, tables, and of course books. About 100 fiction novels were aboard.
“We posted a poll on our Instagram account (@ClarkTxLib) and the overwhelming response was fiction,” Podmore said, “We brought some from each of our fiction sections.” The mobile library visited the four elementary schools that feed into campus and were thought to be within walking distance of most students.
“Students placed books on hold prior to the bookmobile and we brought those books to the stops,” Podmore said. “Some students just needed recommendations so I pulled a few books from the ones we brought.”
Students can check out up to three books at a time through the campus library system. “The library checkout program is an app,” Podmore said. “Mrs. Carr and I were able to check out books via our phones.”
This being a ‘COVID-19 inspired idea,’ precautions had to be taken in order to ensure everyone’s safety.
“We wiped down our tables, used hand sanitizer before and after handling items, and we asked everyone who visited to do the same,” Podmore said. “And of course, everyone was wearing masks.”
From the young age of 5, Podmore was a frequent reader, and now shares her love of books with our students. From her “wheel of names,” to her annual attendance at Library Palooza, Podmore takes every chance to interact with the community, and her mobile library is no exception to this. Podmore was even recognized in Texas as a TCEA library and media specialist in 2015.
“That was really really special because to me, that sort of broke open the idea of associating librarians with technology,” Podmore said. “When I won that award, people were like, ‘you’re right, you do a lot with technology and with helping teachers learn new tools and softwares and helping students master some things.’”
Fortunately, if you missed the mobile library, Podmore has organized another opportunity for students to easily access books, now that some have returned to campus. “What I have been doing is the little pop up library that I did yesterday, and that’s going to be a monday and thursday thing now,” Podmore said. “Right now we can’t have kids wander freely, so there hasn’t been any student traffic in the library, so that’s why we took the pop up library out into the courtyard.”