Street Books is a
mobile library
A bookmobile or mobile library is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Bookm ...
utilizing customized
tricycle
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) three-wheeled vehicle.
Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for passenger transport) and freight trikes, ...
s that serves
homeless
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
people in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
.
It also serves low-income residents of the community,
including those who are
day labor
Day labor (or day labour in Commonwealth spelling) is work done where the worker is hired and paid one day at a time, with no promise that more work will be available in the future. It is a form of contingent work.
Types
Day laborers (also kn ...
ers and
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
.
It was founded in June 2011 by Laura Moulton, an artist, writer, and writing teacher from Portland.
History
Conceived as a time-bound art project, Street Books was initially funded with a $4,963, three-month "social practice" grant from Portland's
Regional Arts & Culture Council
The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is an organization that administers arts grants in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties that also do advocacy in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It evolved from the city†...
.
According to Moulton, the initial idea underlying the project was "that books and conversation about books, could be enriching and enlightening, and could transform time, especially for people living outside".
Its mission is twofold: to "empower people on the streets through access to literature" and to "create a community of support for people living outside, through a shared love of books".
In 2011, Moulton began Street Books by taking 40–50 books to the
Skidmore Fountain
The Skidmore Fountain is a historic fountain in Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States.
The fountain is a contributing property of and the namesake for the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, which is also a National Historic Landmark ...
on Wednesdays and the
South Park Blocks
The South Park Blocks form a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. ''The Oregonian'' has called it Portland's "extended family room", as Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Portland's "living room".
Twelve blocks in length, it is intersecte ...
on Saturdays.
Other locations ultimately frequented by the mobile library include Bud Clark Commons, the
Right 2 Dream Too
Right 2 Dream Too (known to locals as R2D2 or R2DTOO) is a self-managed homeless encampment in Portland, Oregon incorporated as a nonprofit organization. The initial encampment was set up in October, 2011 on private property in Old Town Chinatow ...
homeless camp, St. Francis Park, and the
Willamette River
The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...
waterfront.
By 2014, Street Books had become a registered
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
with a
board of directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
, hosted its first
fundraising
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
event, and counted three salaried "street librarians" (including Moulton) in addition to regular volunteers.
According to Moulton, Street Books "wasn't a service that could be suspended because an art project had come to an end".
By June 2016, it employed six paid librarians and utilized two tricycles.
Additional sources of funding for the mobile library have included a 2011
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
campaign, a $1,000 grant from the
Awesome Foundation
The Awesome Foundation for the arts and sciences is an international network of autonomous 'chapters' (groups) of philanthropists that provide small grants for projects to "people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe." ...
in 2014, and a grant from the
Meyer Memorial Trust
Fred G. Meyer (February 21, 1886 – September 2, 1978)"Fred Meyer, Retail Empire Builder, Dies at 92" (September 3, 1978). ''The Sunday Oregonian'', p. 1. was an American businessman who founded the Oregon-based Fred Meyer store chain, whic ...
.
Operation
Street Books uses
library card
A library card can refer to several cards traditionally used for the management of books and patrons in a library. In its most common use, a library card serves similar functions as a corporate membership card. A person who holds a library card ...
s and traditional library pockets to keep track of its books, although it does not set or enforce due dates; patrons simply return the books at their leisure.
According to Moulton, "people living outside might have bigger things to worry about than returning their books to the street library".
Nevertheless, patrons do regularly return the books they check out.
Additionally, patrons do not need to provide any form of identification or an address to loan books; all that is required to obtain a Street Books library card is to give one's name.
In contrast, patrons of Portland's
Multnomah County Library
Multnomah County Library is the public library system serving Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. A continuation of the Library Association of Portland, established in 1864, the system now has 19 branches offering books, magaz ...
need to provide an address in order to acquire a library card.
Street Books serves the community from June to October of each year.
By 2016, it had served more than 5,000 patrons.
Moulton also invites patrons to be photographed with the books they check out, and then posts these images on a blog that documents the mobile library since its foundation.
Street Books curates and provides access to a diverse collection of books that span a wide range of genres. In August 2011, Moulton noted that
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and ...
and the works of
countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
authors like
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
and
Ken Kesey
Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
Kesey was born in ...
were especially popular.
In July 2016, fellow street librarian Diana Rempe observed that
escapist and
spiritual literature
Spiritual literature is a genre of literature, in which usually involves the personal spiritual experience of the author, in form of diary, autobiography, self-dialogue etc..
Famous spiritual literature
* ''Vägmärken'' (''Markings'') by Dag Ha ...
were also popular among patrons.
Another strength of the collection is its coverage of regional authors, including
Jim Lynch
James Robert Lynch (August 28, 1945 – July 21, 2022) was an American football linebacker. Lynch played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, where he was named an All-American and won the Maxwell Award in 1966. Lynch is a memb ...
,
Benjamin Parzybok, and
Kevin Sampsell
Kevin Sampsell (born March 17, 1967) is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon. He has worked at Powell's Book Store since 1998 as an events coordinator and the head of the small press section.
His memoir, ''A Common Pornography'', was pu ...
.
The collection, which Moulton organizes during the winter, consists largely of
paperback books
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, lea ...
donated by community members.
Street Books will occasionally buy
used book
A used book or secondhand book is a book which has been owned before by an owner other than the publisher or retailer, usually by an individual or library.
Used books typically become available on the market when they are sold or given to a sec ...
s that are specifically requested by patrons, often from
Powell's Books
Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in Portland, Oregon, and its surrounding metropolitan area. Powell's headquarters, dubbed Powell's City of Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Powell's City of ...
.
References
External links
*
*
{{Homelessness in Oregon
Mobile libraries
Libraries in Portland, Oregon
Homelessness organizations
Homelessness in the United States
2011 establishments in Oregon