Put the Brakes on Banning Bookmobiles from Iowa Schools
EveryLibrary joined with the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARLS) and the Association of Bookmobile & Outreach Services (ABOS) to write an op-ed about our rising concerns with HF2324, a bill in Iowa that would ban bookmobiles from visiting schools and end public library cooperative agreements with school districts.
Our joint op-ed appeared in the March 13 issue of The Gazette. We sincerely hope that Iowans will see what harm HF2324 will cause to literacy, learning, and reading across the state. Please join ABOS, ARSL, and EveryLibrary in sending a message to your state Senator and Representative to "put the brakes" on HF2324 and vote no on this bill.
Put the brakes on banning bookmobiles for schools
Across Iowa, from small towns to far-flung neighborhoods, bookmobiles have long represented something simple and hopeful: that access to reading should not depend on where you live, how far you can travel or what your family can afford.
At the Association of Bookmobile & Outreach Services, the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, and EveryLibrary, we work every day with library professionals who bring that promise to life. Bookmobiles close what we call “the last mile for reading,” or the distance between a child and the books that help them grow. Going that last mile is often the difference between literacy and opportunity or isolation and stagnation.
That is why we want to sound an alarm about House File 2324, a bill now under consideration in the Iowa Legislature that would end bookmobile services to schools and stop public library and school cooperation on reading programs and literacy services.
HF 2324 is not in response to a crisis. Bookmobile services don’t undermine safety; they improve academic outcomes. Bookmobiles exist because Iowa communities know that not every family can travel easily to a library building or afford the books children need to succeed in school and life. They exist because schools and public libraries have long worked together to expand access.
HF 2324 arrives at a moment when schools and libraries are already facing significant political pressures. We think it is fair to ask whether, in the name of efforts to respond to cultural anxieties, we have begun to dismantle systems that have quietly served communities well for generations.
Sometimes politicians become so focused on hypothetical risks that they lose sight of the real-world benefits of something as simple as a bookmobile or library card. Bookmobiles are educational infrastructure, not ideological tools. Reasonable people can disagree about policy, but banning partnerships is not a measured response.
As organizations representing librarians, library staff and especially bookmobile staff in Iowa and across the country, we believe HF 2324 is a bad policy that will have real consequences for learning and literacy across the state. We strongly encourage Iowa lawmakers to reconsider their current course of action regarding HF 2423. Closing the last mile for reading has always been one of Iowa’s quiet strengths. It would be a mistake to abandon it now.