Lending Library with Love

Where there is a passion and an opportunity- dreams are realized. For the last several years a group of teachers from Malvern, PA dreamt of creating a book mobile for students and families in our community. We wanted to promote and foster the love of reading outside of our classrooms. We know:

Children will read more if they have access to a constant supply of fresh book choices

Children need diverse, quality books

Children need to self-select books by seeing, holding, and touching them

Children need adult encouragement to try reading new books, series, or authors

Families are busy and sometimes bringing the books to the kids makes life easier for all

In the spring of 2020 when Covid-19 forced the community libraries to close, we realized that it was time to act on our dream. Therefore, a passion project of creating the “Lending Library with Love '' came to realization. We started fundraising with the help of Scholastic Books and their Classroom Counts campaign. We also gathered books from parents, friends, and the Malvern community. We managed to collect and purchase more than 2,000 books. It quickly became clear that this collection would not fit in the back of our minivans and SUVs. We pooled our money and purchased a trailer, shelving, bins, labels, and a banner. 

Our bookmobile made its inaugural trip on July 9th, 2020, and started sharing books with children across the Malvern area. Our mobile library travels to area neighborhoods, where children can choose books to take home and read. This service is free to all families. After just a few weeks, our following grew, and even more people started borrowing books. The bookmobile currently services nine area neighborhoods. We hope to continue to make books available to all by supplementing the local libraries and schools.

We are an entirely self-funded 501(c)(3) charity, and receive no support from any schools, districts, or libraries. All funds donated are used to cover expenses to run the bookmobile such as masks, sanitizer, purchasing new books, and maintaining the cost of the trailer. 

You can follow up on FB and Instagram @Lendinglibrarywithlove for the weekly schedule.

 You can also follow us on Twitter @LuvBookmobile.