Meet the big rig-driving librarians of AFSCME Local 699

Brittany Adams sticks out among the long-haul truckers at the DMV when she goes to renew her Class B Commercial Driver’s License. That’s because she’s not an over-the-road trucker; she works at the Bloomington Public Library, and she drives the library’s 32-foot-long Bookmobile.

“Some of the big burly guys at the DMV see me coming in, and here I am, a 5’2” library worker,” Adams said. “It’s a huge point of pride, and it’s so cool to drive a giant vehicle like this for the library.” 

The Bookmobile is a library on wheels, and the duties of driving it fall to seven different library workers represented by AFSCME Local 699. Together they make 50 stops over a three-week period, delivering books and building relationships with the Bloomington community. 

The program is designed to instill a love of reading in Bloomington’s youth and meet the library’s patrons where they are. But its secondary purpose is to provide a safe space for kids who may not have one at home.

“The idea behind this type of outreach is that the Bookmobile is like a traveling branch of the library,” said Meredith DeLong, a technical library assistant and a second-generation Bookmobile driver. “We try to reach different people who don’t typically make it into the library, whether it’s because they’re socioeconomically marginalized, or disabled folks who physically can’t come into the library.”

The Bookmobile and its drivers are local celebrities in Bloomington. Out on their routes, kids have been known to chase after them down the street. Other drivers gawk when the big vehicle pulls up to a stoplight. Kids roll down the windows in the back of their minivans to shout.

“We develop relationships with our patrons that are so strong,” Adams said. “When we travel in the Bookmobile, we’re going into their neighborhoods. It’s more personal. We have regulars that track us down at every single stop. We have regulars that tell us about their lives, their hardships, their bright moments. We make real connections with people.”

All of their CDL training is done in-house by their fellow Bookmobile drivers. There’s plenty of studying needed to pass the exam: They need to learn how to do pre-trip inspections, understand how air brakes work, and get to know their truck, top to bottom. 

Because of all this training and other unique challenges, their union contract makes sure that the drivers are compensated for their extra effort and protected from safety risks. When they’re on the road, their union contract provides for a $2 pay differential. It also has a safety provision requiring that two employees be sent out together whenever there is a late-night route.

All the extra effort that Local 699 members put into the Bookmobile has a great payoff: The satisfaction of knowing they’ve built positive, meaningful relationships with their community.

“When kids come on the Bookmobile, you get to see them grow up,” Adams said. “I’ve had kids come on that were barely walking. Now they’re picking out books on their own.”