Miami-Dade Public Library System provides our community with a ton of great resources, South Floridians might not know about. For years they’ve had free museum passes to the science museum, Vizcaya and Zoo Miami for patrons with library cards. Anyone with a library card can use their computers and print up to 25 pages a day free of charge. More recently they’ve been handing out free at home COVID tests. But they have another old school community focused feature that provides a great service to the community, the bookmobile.
The bookmobile is a compact Miami-Dade library on wheels. It makes scheduled stops each week at public parks, childcare facilities, condominium complexes, retirement communities, senior centers and recreational facilities where people might not have access to a brick and mortar library. Here’s the link where you can see the stops from Hialeah to Cutler Bay. Stops at each of the scheduled locations are usually one hour where people can check out a diverse selection of books, music, audiobooks, and movies. If you or someone you know can’t make it to one of the already scheduled bookmobile stops, you can even make a request for a new stop for the bookmobile by clicking here.
Growing up on Key Biscayne in the 1980’s before they had an actual library, I remember stepping on to a bookmobile to get whatever paperback volume of a Chose Your Own Adventure in stock. When I entered a more recent vintage of a bookmobile at this past November’s Miami Book Fair, it brought back positive memories. Through their Hoopla app the library system also provides e-books and e-movies. While it’s convenient to read on a tablet or phone, I don’t think its old fashioned to believe a physical book provides readers a different kind of feeling. And the bookmobile is a great tool for more people in South Florida to have access to books and other physical media.
