Not only is this week the official launch of the DPLA, but it’s also National Library Week! In celebration, HistoryPin will be featuring an image from the DPLA’s channel as its Pin of the Day.
The DPLA’s Pin of the Day is an image of the Hennepin County Library bookmobile. Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis and St. Paul, also accounts for 1/5 of the State’s total population. The county first commissioned its bookmobile, then a book wagon, in 1922; the bookwagon could transport books to rural schools, homes, and community centers, thereby increasing access to reading materials across the county. As demand for the book wagon grew, the wagon itself changed, and the county adapted to a Model T Book Van in the 1930s, and the service grew to two new ton and a half Dodge trucks by the mid 1950s.
One of the DPLA’s two HistoryPin channels, the channel from which the Pin of the Day was selected, highlights the history of America’s libraries; now that the DPLA is launching a first iteration of its website, this look back at libraries past seems especially apt. Like the bookmobile, the DPLA is harnessing technological changes in order to eliminate the challenges to access posed by physical distance. In the same way that Hennepin County’s first book wagon revolutionized the ways in which people in rural areas accessed information, the DPLA can bring new and exciting resources to the people, but this time that increased access is being facilitated on a national scale, and without a horse-drawn wagon.
Take some time to check out the DPLA’s HistoryPin channel, and have a very happy National Library Week!
Featured Image: Hennepin County Library bookmobile, 1971. Hennepin County [Minnesota] Department of Public Affairs, a member of the Minnesota Digital Library. All rights reserved.