Library Giving Day 2024 happens Wednesday, April 3, and Dayton Metro Library’s campaign is celebrating the 100th anniversary of DML’s Bookmobile.
Library Giving Day is a nationwide event where communities acknowledge and support the vital and trusted institutions we call libraries, and DML invites its communities to support one of its longest standing services, the Bookmobile.
In the last 100 years, the Library has reduced barriers to literacy and resources through the Bookmobile, which has served patrons all over Montgomery County. In 1923, Electra Collins Doren established one of the nation’s first Bookmobiles, a book wagon, which was used to deliver books to factory workers and outlying areas. Since then, the Bookmobile has transformed into an early literacy tool serving more than 10,000 children across Montgomery County each year. DML’s current Bookmobile has been in service since 2005.
It serves many children who do not have direct access to a library, as well as preschools, daycares, and child devolvement centers, by providing early literacy programming for children between the ages of three- and 10-years old teaching children early literacy skills and modelling behaviors that promote reading readiness. In 2023 alone, the Bookmobile served 16,218 children and distributed 28,171 books.
All donations made on Library Giving Day will be made in support of a new Bookmobile for DML. Additionally, DML has a donation match on Library Giving Day thanks to a generous, anonymous supporter, meaning that every donation made on April 3 will have double the impact.
Community members can help DML in continuing to serve Montgomery County children and families by driving through the years to come in a new Bookmobile. Visit DaytonMetroLibrary.org/GivingDay to donate directly to DML. Additional questions may also be directed to Lauren Tappel, DML’s Development Director, at 937.496.8587.
