It looks a little ungainly at rest; a shiny black tricycle frame cradling one very large, very purple wooden carton that looks like nothing so much as one of summer’s ubiquitous ice-cream vending vehicles.
But when Jennifer Bartel, the Wilmette Public Library’s creative experiences coordinator, dons her helmet and rolls the trike into action, it’s not clumsy at all. She steers it and the load of books and other library goodies it carries deftly, navigating sidewalks and corners wobble-free.
That allows her to take Professor Plum — the name bestowed on the tricycle by a vote of 250 library patrons – across Wilmette, effectively bringing the library to residents in an entirely new way, she said.
Six other library employees have also learned to ride the Professor, Bartel said. Between them, they will visit parks, downtown locations such as the weekend French Market, and events such as this year’s Summerfest.
“We had a good time at the recent French Market, and got a lot of very good feedback,” she said.
Many of the connections, she said, have been with people she optimistically calls “patrons-to-be.”
Former library director Heather McCammond-Watts proposed the bike program last year, Bartel said.
“It’s a very cool idea,” said Betty Giorgi, one of the library’s interim co-directors.
Sarah Beth Brown, the library’s head of community services, agreed.
“We thought it would be a fun idea to be able to do some of our community outreach using some new tools,” she said.
The tricycle represents a much more accessible form of community outreach than a bookmobile, Bartel said. It’s far less expensive, at $3,670, than bookmobiles, which the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services estimates cost an average of $200,000 each. And its size means it can visit locations that the larger vehicle can’t manage.
Without gasoline or diesel fumes, “It’s greener, too,” Bartel said.
Ordering and receiving the bicycle from Haley Tricycles, the Philadelphia-based company that builds the front loading tricycles for libraries and other users, took some time, but that gave staff the chance to prepare for its arrival, Brown said.
“There was a learning curve on how to ride it,” she said. “But we had some staffers very excited to learn, and they’ve got it down now.”
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The trike arrived customized with the library’s purple, green, and gold colors (a gold sun-umbrella, a green box interior and the exterior purple that helped win it its name.)
Wilmette residents can look forward to seeing Professor Plum and enjoying its library largesse this summer. For information on its schedule, visit www.wilmette.lib.il.us.