It’s Monday afternoon, and Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) employees Candice Munson and Meagan Wheeler are driving a blue bus from Bellingham to Glenhaven, one of Whatcom County’s southernmost communities. The 34-foot-long “roaming library” makes this trek once a week, rain or shine.
The next four hours are a flurry of activity: Retirees pick up books on hold, then linger to chit-chat with neighbors. Tweens browse YA shelves while parents and toddlers leaf through picture books. In the summer months, kids stop by on their way home from the pool, swimsuits still damp with chlorine.
“It’s a very personal experience coming into the bookmobile,” said Rika Lee Vanderhorst, who works in WCLS’ mobile services. “You walk up the stairs, and you look right, and we have our desks right there. And we know pretty much everybody by name.”
WCLS has 10 locations across Whatcom County, but residents of certain communities — Glenhaven included — must drive 6 miles or more to reach a brick-and-mortar. Not everyone can easily access a physical library branch.
Enter the WCLS Bookmobile: The bus-turned-library brings 4,000 books not just to Glenhaven but Wickersham, Lake Samish and Birch Bay on a weekly basis. Every year, it circulates 40,000 library materials, driving nearly 7,500 miles.
“Transportation isn’t easy for everyone, and getting to the main public library is challenging,” said Glenhaven resident Saul Luark, who’s used the Bookmobile for 10 years, since his son learned to read. “ … We would be relegated mostly to reading e-books if we didn’t have this service.”
WCLS’ Bookmobile program began nearly 80 years ago, its model a common phenomenon in the mid-20th century. Today just 6% of library branches have bookmobiles — but Community Relations Manager Mary Vermillion said as Whatcom County has evolved, the Bookmobile has adapted to serve communities who need it most.
“I think it speaks to the history of our community, and to the reality of our community today,” Vermillion said, “which is that not everyone has easy access to information.”
The Bookmobile’s beginnings
In 1947, two years after WCLS opened its first branch, the so-called “rural library system” purchased a bookmobile for $7,000. It was staffed by four librarians — including Linda Hellyer, Whatcom County’s first rural librarian — and distributed “2,200 of the best books for children and adults” according to an August 1947 Bellingham Herald article.
The program connected far-flung rural communities and was made possible through a partnership with the Bellingham Public Library (BPL), where the Bookmobile initially parked. Hellyer told the Bellingham Herald in 1968 that she borrowed books from BPL as well as physical WCLS branches.
Patrons could even make requests: “When they ask for a special book from us, it is the same as asking in the Seattle Public Library, except that it might take us a little longer to get it,” Hellyer said in the article.
Hellyer regularly published additions to the Bookmobile’s inventory in the Herald, with titles ranging from now-classics by Faulkner and Churchill to “juvenile fiction,” cookbooks, parenting guides, and nonfiction titles like “Hunting and Fishing in Alaska” and “Professional Magic for Amateurs.”
The Herald stated in 1947 that “most counties in Washington have bookmobiles.” By the ‘70s, WCLS’ vehicle made quick stops — sometimes just five to 10 minutes — in more than 30 locations each week.
“They were at the corner of this street and that street, and they would just tootle all through the town,” Mobile Services Manager Sam Wallin said. “Their clientele was stay-at-home parents; you know, it was an era when it was less common for households to have more than one car.”
Some current-day patrons still remember this era: “We get this story all the time from people here in Whatcom County, [saying] that’s how they started to read,” Vanderhorst said. “It was the visits from the Bookmobile.”
The Bookmobile today
Today, the Bookmobile specifically serves communities where it’s inconvenient — or sometimes impossible — for residents to make extra trips to town.
“If you are unable to access the internet from your home, [or] you don’t have a reliable car, or you’re reliant on the bus system, or you just live too far away from the nearest library, then the bookmobile is a terrific option,” Vermillion said.
Each stop is carefully chosen for accessibility, visibility and amenities. Still, Wallin keeps a close eye on attendance: “If we were seeing a major change or reduction … then we would have to assess and think, is this the best place for us to be?” he said. “Sometimes it can be as simple as finding someplace a mile away that’s more convenient for everybody in that community.”
Stocking the Bookmobile is also a matter of strategy. Vanderhorst, Munson and their co-workers put extensive thought into which titles make it on board, “shopping the shelves” at bigger branches and ensuring selections remain “really fresh and enticing.”
Their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed: Across locations, Munson said the Bookmobile operation is “pretty satisfying work, because our patrons are so appreciative.”
Vanderhorst has driven the Bookmobile for 28 of her 34 years with WCLS and has watched countless young readers grow up. Some patrons bring her baked goods or produce from their gardens. When she or a coworker finds a book they think a patron might like, they’ll deliver it the following week.
“We often hear patrons say: ‘You told me to get this book,’ or ‘You recommended it last week, and I read it, and it was fantastic, and I gave it to all my friends,’ and then we’ll have a conversation,” Munson added. “That is really Whatcom County Library System’s basic tenet, these conversations we have with patrons.”
That tenet is longstanding: In 1966, former WCLS librarian Margery Wertman described her patrons as “about the ‘pleasantest’ clientele in the library field.” Wertman traveled in the Bookmobile for “five days a week, hitting each point in the county every two weeks” for 18.5 years before retiring, according to the Bellingham Herald.
“[Patrons] are interested in knowing about the world around them,” Wertman said, “and after a while you learn to anticipate what each one would like.”
‘History and reality’ of Whatcom County
WCLS has been through six Bookmobiles as of 2025; the most recent one debuted in 2019 in accordance with the library system’s 75th anniversary. One previous vehicle was sent overseas to become a mobile vaccination clinic.
“These bookmobiles do such good work for us for 20-plus years,” Vanderhorst said, “and then they go on to have other chapters in their lives.”
In the digital age, however, U.S. bookmobile services are increasingly rare: At the height of their popularity in 1991, 1,125 could be found roaming the U.S. That number has reduced to 668 as of 2019.
But WCLS’ Bookmobile service is a testament to more than the region’s agrarian past. Wallin said libraries represent free and open access information — and in Whatcom County, that requires “more than unlocking the doors to a building and having people come there.”
The Bookmobile isn’t the only mobile resource WCLS provides: Staff also deliver resources directly to assisted living facilities and permanently homebound patrons. WCLS has a cooperative agreement with the Whatcom County Jail. Vanderhorst and Munson are even piloting a books-by-mail service for homebound patrons (and Vanderhorst enjoyed including “silly dad jokes” with each package).
But no matter how folks access the library, Vermillion encourages patrons to ask questions — “because I promise you,” she continued, “there’s something you didn’t know we did.” A modern library card facilitates access to not just books but streaming services, youth programs, digital literacy courses, computers and other resources.
“That’s the bottom line: We love to read. We really love to help people,” Vermillion said. “And we’d like to help people read.”
As for the personalized book recommendations? Well, those are just an added bonus.
Whatcom Reads — “a countywide program that encourages everyone to read and discuss the same book“ — has live author events from March 12–15. The program is presented by all the public and academic libraries in Whatcom County, as well as community partner Village Books. Info: whatcomreads.org.
Cocoa Laney is CDN’s lifestyle editor; reach her at cocoalaney@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 128.
