Mobile libraries playing important role 60 years on

Mobile libraries remain popular six decades after they arrived in Cambridgeshire

Mobile libraries are still providing an important service 60 years after they were introduced, a councillor has said.

A mobile library first appeared in Cambridgeshire at Longstanton in July 1964.

The county council is celebrating the diamond anniversary of the service this year.

Councillor Firouz Thompson, who represents Longstanton, said the mobile library was still "hugely valued".

Mobile libraries are still well used in the county, 60 years after the service was launched

A library van first drove into Longstanton in the year Beatlemania arrived in the United States, four months after Cassius Clay became world heavyweight boxing champion, and weeks after anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was given a life sentence in prison in South Africa.

Villagers climbed aboard for the first time in the year Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published and Mary Poppins was released.

Ms Thompson, who represents Longstanton, Northstowe and Over, said bookworms living in the internet age still engaged with the mobile library.

'It's really important'

“I’ve been on site here many times when the mobile library has visited our growing community," she said.

"It’s hugely valued here and always lovely to see the engagement with people of all ages – especially young children.”

Fellow councillor Alex Bulat echoed those sentiments.

In an online post, Ms Bulat said: "It's really important to keep this service because mobile libraries are part of our community and enables access to library services (not only books but also stamps, reading glasses and other items available) in rural areas."

The first library van in Perthshire in the 1920s

Cambridgeshire County Council said three mobile libraries visited more than 400 locations in about 100 villages each month.

"Each library carries more than 3,000 items of stock, with the service issuing around 4,500 books each month," said a spokesman.

"Mobile libraries enable potentially isolated people and those in rural areas to stay connected and independent by borrowing books, audio books, magazines and jigsaws, buying stamps and reading glasses and even collecting free walking stick ferrules and hearing aid batteries."

Mobile libraries arrived in Cambridgeshire four decades after first being seen in Britian.

The earliest edition, a Ford van fitted with wooden shelves and holding between 800 and 900 books, went into service in Perthshire in the 1920s.