OUR MISSION

Empowering children to be readers!

OUR VISION

• Every child in our community will have access to books at his or her independent reading level.
• Every child in the community will have the opportunity to own books.
• All programs and materials are free.
• The bookmobile is open to all children in our community but specifically targets our at-risk population.
• The bookmobile provides opportunities for children to engage in literacy activities during summer months.  Engaging in literacy activities over the summer helps decrease summer reading regression.
• The bookmobile is designed to be a free, non-lending mobile library for children under the age of 18.  
• Each time children visit the Bookmobile, they are given a free book and a snack.
• In cooperation with OCSD, the bookmobile staff tracks key information to document both quantitative and qualitative outcomes.

Oswego Bookmobile~Driving Books Home, delivers free books and activities to the neighborhoods where children live and play. Driving Books Home is the only free mobile summer literacy program available to all children through grade 12, operating in Oswego County.

Oswego Bookmobile helped children select 5,123 free books to call their own in 2022. As COVID restrictions continued to ease, we welcomed children and youth back on the bookmobile for the first time since 2019!

For seven weeks in July and August, the Driving Books Home summer program delivered books, snacks, and activities to the neighborhoods and parks where children live and play.

1,573 young readers selected 3,659 books during the summer program.

Oswego Bookmobile also participated in community events where children were able to select a book to keep. An additional 1,464 books were selected by children at these events bringing the total number of books selected in 2022 to 5,123.

The 2022 events were: Leighton Elementary School’s Family Literacy Night, Oswego YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day, H. Lee White Maritime Museum Lake Ontario Waterfront Festival, Oswego Home School Association Science Fair, City of Oswego Fourth of July Parade, Oswego Harborfest, Assemblyman Barclay’s Summer Reading Challenge, Oswego County Federal Credit Union Movies in the Park, Youth Bureau Candy Bar Bingo, Lions Club Craft Show, Friends of the Library Mini Golf, Oswego Public Library’s Summer Reading Program Celebration, and the Autism Awareness Kids Event. The last appearance of 2022 at the Oswego Public Library’s Holiday Party wrapped up another great year of delivering free books to children for Oswego Bookmobile.

The Oswego Bookmobile was founded in 2011 to combat an alarming trend.  Testing indicates that economically disadvantaged children in the Oswego City School District are significantly less proficient in reading than their more affluent peers. By eighth grade, there is a 40% gap between the percentage of economically disadvantaged children who are proficient in reading and the percentage of their peers who are proficient!  This is due, in large part, to having limited access to books at their reading level in their homes and neighborhoods during the summer months. This trend is commonly referred to as the “summer reading slide” and has a significant, long-term impact on the academic success of children.