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By Joel Featherstone
MENDON -- For just one hour a week the town of Mendon has its own library fully equipped with a selection ranging from romance novels to children's picture books and a librarian who knows everybody's name -- and it's all on wheels. At 4:15 every Wednesday evening the Bookmobile, as large as any decent-sized delivery truck, pulls in front of the city park and opens shop for business, and remains Mendon's own library until 5:15 p.m. The entrance to the Bookmobile is a welcoming metal-framed glass door on the side of the truck. Inside there is a librarian's desk, carpeted floors, and wooden shelves lining the walls from the ground to the ceiling filled with books. It really feels and looks like a library. Minutes after the Bookmobile parked, a few residents of Mendon came in and began browsing for a good read. Larissa Swasey came to the Bookmobile with three of her children. "We used to come in here weekly," said Swasey, who moved to Mendon two years ago. "I wouldn't live anywhere else in the valley." Librarian or Bookmobile keeper and driver, Sherid Peterson, organizes some children's books on the lower shelves. He greets each person who enters and seems to know almost everybody including the toddlers. Peterson, from Providence, has been working for the Bookmobile for about 30 years, which is about as long as the Bookmobile has been running. "There was only one guy who worked here six months before me," said Peterson. Not only has Peterson been the Bookmobile librarian for three decades, he is the only one that serves Cache Valley. Peterson said the Bookmobile operates out of the Providence Library and it is his job to choose what books stay and go. He said he has more entertainment books than others. "I usually get the kinds of books that I know people will read," said Peterson. Throughout the hour the Bookmobile was in Mendon around 15 people came in and out, some checking out handfuls of books and some turning their items in. Two elementary school age boys had stacks of more than ten books each to take home. Peterson informed them he should have a bunch of Halloween books next week available to check out. Stephanie Watkins stepped inside with two of her toddlers. Stephanie, who grew up in Mendon, said she remembers using the Bookmobile when she was a girl. Now she brings her children. "We come here almost every week," said Watkins. Peterson said the Bookmobile is state and county funded and operates in rural areas all over Utah. Throughout the week Peterson goes everywhere in Cache County from as far north as Lewiston, near Idaho, all the way down to Avon at the most southern part of the valley. "Bookmobile: Your Mobile Information Source" is painted on the outside of the truck.
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