An Ontario Bookmobile Film The Books Drive On, 1948

The Books Drive On. 16 mm film, colour and sound, 1948. Produced by Jean and Glen Eckmier, photography by Bob Henry and script by Tom Rafferty from CKNX radio.

Ontario libraries were late adopters of motorized bookmobile service. In the 19th century travelling library service by agencies in the UK and USA were innovative extension ideas to reach readers in unserved areas. In Canada, travelling libraries, boxes of books usually shipped to local communities or schools, were introduced first in British Columbia in 1898 by E.O.S, Scholefield, the Provincial Librarian and Archivist. In 1899, McGill University began serving areas in rural Quebec thanks to the sponsorship of Hugh McLennan. The Ontario Department of Education began its service to northern lumber camps in 1901. These systems proved to be so popular that they were expanded and continued for more than half a century before they were discontinued.

Canadian Bookmobiles Arrive on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts

The first Canadian motorized bookmobiles, which contemporaries often called book vans, book trucks, or libraries-on-wheels, appeared in the Maritimes and British Columbia as early as 1930. In two summers, 1930 and 1931, Acadia University operated two bookmobiles, one in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia and the other in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Each modified book truck carried 1,500 books and visited station stops eight times during the summer. Unfortunately, worsening economic conditions at the outset of the Great Depression forced the termination of this service. In the Fraser Valley, B.C., the Carnegie Corporation sponsored a regional library demonstration commencing in late summer 1930 that included a bookmobile service. It proved to be highly successful under the direction of notable librarians, Helen Gordon Stewart, the director and the assistant, Nora Bateson, who later championed regional services in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island before 1939.

 In Ontario, regional library systems developed slowly on a county basis. The improvement of transportation routes in the 1920s and 1930s provided the opportunity to deliver book collections more easily and rapidly via motorized vehicles. The Ontario Department of Highways financed the growth of a provincial highway network assisted by the Good Roads Association based in municipalities and counties. Major highway construction and secondary roads facilitated commercial truck traffic, inter-city bus lines, and private automobile travel. The formation of county library associations in the 1930s and then county library co-operatives after the Second World War occurred mostly in southwestern Ontario. By 1935, Lambton County trustees introduced a small two-wheeled trailer (‘book van’) with built-in shelving towed by a vehicle. Middlesex County began operating a small cabin-style book trailer carrying 1,200 books in 1940. These were not motorized bookmobiles and wartime rationing on gasoline and rubber halted further progress by county library associations until after 1945.

The Huron County Bookmobile

The Huron County Library Association was formed in 1941. Sixteen participating libraries agreed to pay an annual fee of $25 to share books transported by car on a rotating basis. In 1945, Mrs. Jean Eckmier became the county librarian and her husband, Glen, was hired as her assistant. For a few years they delivered books using their own car, but in 1947, the Huron County Library Cooperative purchased an imported American van adapted to bookmobile standards and nicknamed “Miss Huron” for just over $3000. It was the first driven bookmobile in Ontario, an International Harvester one-ton metro van, a type frequently used to deliver milk and bakery items to homes across North America after WW II. The body was built over the engine, thus giving more room for about 1,000 books. This compact model bookmobile was used to supply each participating library with 100 books on a quarterly rotating basis.

Angus Mowat, the Inspector of Public Libraries for the Ontario Department of Education, rode in the vehicle for two days in September 1947 and made a lengthy report with interesting observations in his notebook (pp. 513–514), which now resides at the D.B. Weldon Library at the Western University. A few of his excerpts follow:

The cab is built over [the] engine, thus allowing extra space in [the] rear. Front doors slide and driver's seat sets forward, giving wide entrance.
Truck is very easily handled and can turn in short space. Headroom 5' 7." Width of floor between shelving 4' 8." Shelves 8' long, six shelves high, house approximately 1000 [books]. Shelving is of wood made locally, and each edge has a 3/4" lip to keep books on. A hinged lip would be better, making it easier to remove the books when in action. Light by day is from the large windshield and windows in [the] rear doors. At night there is only a single dome lamp. Maybe they'll need more.
The general appearance of the vehicle is good. It is pained in a dark green, picked out by a lighter stripe.
Everything about the vehicle gives an impression of solidity and strength. It sides evenly and even though we went off on one or two quite rough detours the books did not offer to budge. I think, however, that dust may prove to be something of a problem. There will be heater and de-froster in winter.
Wherever we went on the two days I was out on exchange the van caused considerable interest, at least among the library people and small boys. In fact, on two occasions the small boys promptly invited themselves aboard and selected some of the books they wanted the librarian to take out.
I was surprised to see how quickly the exchanges were made [deposits and returns of 100 books per library]. The shortest one was 35 minutes and the longest about one hour. This is about twice as quickly as exchanges were made when trays were carried in a passenger automobile.

The Inspector also penned a short article about his ride through the farm fields and small county towns in the November 1947 issue of the Ontario Library Review with an enthusiastic comment, “The librarian didn’t sing, but I did.”

Late in 1947, the county library trustees and county council authorized the production of a 16 mm film featuring the new bookmobile and the work of Jean and Glen Eckmier with a grant from the county council. The energetic couple took charge of the entire production and enlisted the help of Tom Rafferty of the Wingham radio station, CKNX (known as the Farm Station), to compose the script and to provide its commentary. Bob Henry did the colour photography and Wilford T. Cruickshank, a previous library trustee and owner of CKNX, assisted in production. Shooting began in November 1947 and finished several months later in August 1948. During filming, Stanley Beacock, the chief librarian in Lambton County, drove Miss Huron to the Canadian Library Association gathering in Ottawa in June 1948 for a special session on transportation in regional and county work. The Huron bookmobile was one of three prominent exhibits at the conference.

This ‘amateur’ film was not remarkably different from other bookmobile motion pictures that featured visits to readers at stations and small libraries. Still, it had a quality of highlighting the rural features of Huron County—the dusty streets of small hamlets, busy street front stores, livestock, field crops, farm machinery, children, adults and seniors gathering their books, greenery and trees along county roadways, attractive streets of the county seat, Goderich, the sleekly designed bookmobile with its gold trimmed lettering, and the sunset at the end of the day. Libraries were popular throughout Huron and there were five existing Carnegie buildings: Brussels, Clinton, Exeter, Goderich, and Seaforth. Other libraries were located in smaller communities, such as Auburn, Bayfield, Blyth, Dungannon, Hensall, and Kirkton, as well as township schools. During its initial years, the film grew in popularity. The National Film Board contributed $2500 to purchase a negative print. Later, The Books Drive On was advertised for sale in the Library Journal and the Wilson Library Bulletin. By 1951, the film had been exhibited across Canada and the United States and had left a lasting impression of county library work in a rural setting.

County library bookmobiles appeared across rural Ontario during the 1950s: in Simcoe, Lambton, Middlesex, Peel, Kent, and other cooperative systems. These mobile units primarily refreshed collections in small local libraries and schools from a central county headquarters. In urban Ontario the bookmobile provided an extension service and they proved to be successful in cities such as Ottawa, Hamilton, and London. Expanding suburban municipal library boards, such as East York and North York, purchased bookmobiles to reach people directly at designated stops. Through the 1960s and 1970s bookmobiles continued to be popular, although improved branch library services across the province in cities and counties lessened their need to reach people. After 2000, bookmobile service again picked up and today (2025) there are about fifteen bookmobiles in operation across Ontario because it is reasonably economical and reaches many people who find it more convenient to use.

Jean Eckmier and her husband, Glen, remained with the Huron system until their retirement in 1961.

View the 35 minute film The Books Drive On on YouTube at this link.

My blog on the Library on Wheels, the 1945 Fraser Valley bookmobile film, is at this link.

My blog on two later Canadian bookmobile films is at this link.