Idea: Community media center on wheels
(revised December 3, 2007)

"I have some people that have been coming since I've been on the bookmobile," Roberts said, adding that he treasures the chance to watch them go through milestones and connect over a shared passion for literature. People who used to scamper onto the vehicles in search of the latest "Arthur" books as children now approach Roberts with their own little ones. Petro and Whiteside echoed the personal connection they feel with the patrons who show up at their respective stops like clockwork.

"We know a lot about their families, their jobs, what they're doing for Thanksgiving," Whiteside said.

"It's almost like a neighborhood bar where everybody knows everybody else," Petro added.
(http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/11/23/news/local/1028111.txt)

Background: In communities that lack the funding to maintain school media centers in the traditional sense, rooms that were once thriving school libraries are now often auxiliary, empty rooms that no longer serve their purpose. Therefore, instead of attempting to revive the old model of a school media center in a school, let’s think of a new model that can serve more than one group within a community (not just school-age students), more than one community, and exponentially more people.

The other idea at work here is that communities need community centers – for recreational sports, for social events, for classes, for meetings, etc. – and too often, existing community centers (for a myriad of reasons) are not serving the communities that need them most to their fullest capacity.

Combining these two ideas, we’ve come up with a community media center on wheels that would potentially serve all members of as many different communities as possible.

Our goal would not be to replace school media centers or existing community centers. However, our goal would be to bring people back to their school media centers and community centers through the possibilities created by the school media center bus. In other words, we want to get people excitied about existing media/community centers and think about those places in a fundamentally new, exciting way.

Initial thoughts:

bus:
- Find a large bus and revamp it.
o what does this mean?
o how would you go about revamping a bus?
o and where would you find a bus?
- Equip bus with media creation technology (computers, cameras, videos, monitors, speakers)
o what else?
o how to obtain?
o how to install?
- Equip bus with consumable media (books to check in/out, music to check in/out, etc).
o how could we effectively manage this?
o what would the goals of this aspect be?
- Equip bus with awnings that fold out of the sides so that when in park, activities can happen next to the bus.
o also, a removable floor to place outside next to the bus
o aesthetics are important: people need to be comfortable so that they can focus on what they are there to do
o plus, space outside the bus would expand programming options

action:
- Drive bus to different communities on a monthly basis (through some sort of touring schedule that puts the bus in the same place for the first Tuesday of every month, for example).
- Partner with schools, places of worship, community centers, etc. for places to park the bus/run bus activities once/month.
- Develop modular, monthly curricula so that each month, the bus activites will focus on a different topic (poetry, healthy eating, etc.).
o These topics could also be community-specific.
o Members of the community can also use the bus to teach classes (dance, knitting, storytelling, etc.).
- Offer classes on/next to the bus designed for adults (resume-writing, public speaking, etc.).
o This adult-education aspect of the community bus could be expanded to include GED classes, adult-specific technology classes, etc.
- In order to participate in any of the bus-related activities, participants must contribute to The Storytelling Project.
o Storytelling project will consist of people using various media forms (text, sound, movies, graphics, photography, etc.) to tell their stories.
o These projects can be something that participants update/add to on a regular basis (an autobiographical movie, a photo collage, etc.).

goals:
- Participants will learn to use new kinds of technology
- Participants will be exposed to new thoughts, ideas, medias, and modes of expression in a safe, healthy, engaging environment.
- The community media center bus will bring communities together in a way that fosters growth and development within communities.
- The community media center bus will bring various communities around the state of Michigan together through shared experiences, shared learning, and The Storytelling Project

interesting related links (thanks, Garin!):
Ann Arbor District Library BookMobile: http://www.aadl.org/aboutus/equipment_sale/bookmobile

The City Repair Project - T-Horse: http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/projects

Bus Project: http://busproject.org/

and one with a conference in October that we should definitely attend:
http://www.abos-outreach.org/index.html -- Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services