A bookmobile is a large vehicle stocked from floor to ceiling with books. They can be anything from a refurbished delivery type vehicle, like an old UPS truck to a new tour bus. It then travels from the library to elementary schools, homes for the elderly, workplaces, public parks etc. on a regular basis, allowing books to come to people rather than people having to go the library to check them out. Bookmobiles generally stock a wide variety of literature, books on tape etc. for all patrons.
The bookmobile in our small Kansas town was painted in crazy splotches in hippie mural fashion. It would come by my preschool on Wednesday afternoons and we could go in, a few at a time, and check out a book. For some reason, I'm not entirely sure why, our bookmobile is very much associated in my brain with chocolate pudding art... you know, throw a huge glob of chocolate pudding on a table and have all the kids draw with it and lick their fingers off... not very sanitary I know, but this was the seventies. Inside it seemed like a looming book-cave, a mobile-stacks, much much larger on the inside than it appeared from the street. I still remember the smell of it; only slightly reminiscent of that library smell of book, but mingled with the hot smell of summer. My library card was cream, with black type. A thin metal plate with a number was punched in the corner, under my address. I could lose anything, easily. Still can. I somehow managed to keep my library card, because I loved Bread and Jam for Frances, Curious George and Madeleine books.