Bookmobiles
The State Library operates three bookmobiles in regions that provide books and information to rural and underserved citizens. Each bookmobile travels a monthly route of regularly scheduled stops (or deposit sites for library collections).
- The Rural Bookmobile (RBM) Program began in 1956.
- There are three rural bookmobile offices located in Cimarron, Tucumcari, and Los Lunas, each staffed with three library employees.
- The RBM Program is a library service of the New Mexico State Library funded by a Library Services & Technology Act Grant from the Federal Institute of Museum & Library Services.
- The bookmobiles serve 25 New Mexico counties with over 100 stops. (County exceptions are Bernalillo, DeBaca, Doña Ana, Los Alamos, Luna, San Juan, Santa Fe, Torrance.)
- Each Bookmobile holds over 3,500 titles on a variety of subjects and genre.
- Bookmobiles travel over 65,000 miles per year, or 14,000 to 21,000 miles each.
- Circulation for the 3 bookmobiles per year usually averages 120,000 items.
- People served averages over 19,000 people yearly; nearly 30% of those are children.
- The bookmobiles circulate books for the Summer Reading Program which serves over 67,000 children in New Mexico.
- The counties and municipalities served contributed $30,000 per year to assist with funding book and material purchases for their collections.
- The bookmobile buses are purchased with Capitol Improvement Program funds appropriated by the state legislature.
Books by Mail
Books-by-Mail is a book delivery service offered to rural residents of New Mexico who do not live near a State Library Rural Bookmobile stop or near a public library. The service is also available to individuals in New Mexico who are homebound because of a physical disability and unable to visit a local library or people who can only read large print books due to a visual disability. The books are mailed to the user and are returned to the State Library by postage-paid mail.
- The Books by Mail (BBM) Program began in 1975.
- The program has one staff member, paid with Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Federal grant money.
- The program serves over 1,500 households per year, or over 4,611 people per month.
- BBM circulates nearly17,500 books per year.
- BBM has a collection of approximately 37,600 books.
- Books by Mail serves all 33 counties in New Mexico.
For more information, questions, or new book requests, call 1-800-395-9144, or email us at BooksByMailNM@dca.nm.gov, or write to Books-By-Mail, New Mexico State Library, 1209 Camino Carlos Rey, Santa Fe, NM 87507.
The Rural Services Program is funded in part with a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) which administers the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The bookmobile vehicles are purchased with funding appropriated by the New Mexico state legislature.