Marking 60 years of mobile libraries in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire’s mobile libraries celebrated 60 years of service at a stop in Northstowe.

The first recorded mobile library stop in Cambridgeshire was in Longstanton, and the nearest postcode and current stop in Northstowe is now one of the service’s most popular stops.

The three mobile libraries visit more than 400 locations in around 100 villages each month. Each carries more than 3,000 items and the service issues around 4,500 books each month.

Residents, councillors and members of the library service, past and present, gathered in Northstowe on Friday, 12 July to celebrate with balloons, cake and a photo display of library vehicles.

Cllr Tom Sanderson, chair of the communities, social mobility and inclusion committee, said: “When mobile libraries visit a community they bring so much more than books – they bring social connection, support and opportunities to potentially isolated people.”

They stock books, audio books, magazines and jigsaws, and enable people to buy stamps and reading glasses – and even collect free walking stick ferrules and hearing aid batteries.

Jane Grant, who worked in the service for 15 years, said: “Our readers also became our friends.”