Bookmobile services are driving back into Wayne County, Ind.

Since 2009, people in need of library books or services in Wayne County, Indiana, had to go to Morrisson-Reeves Library across the county in Richmond. Starting soon, the library will once again come to them.

The MRL Express Book Truck will start rolling in early 2026 to bring library services to 11 of Wayne County's 15 townships that are covered by the Wayne County Contractual Library.

"We've seen a real need in our community to provide library services outside of our physical building," says Josh Imhoff, engagement manager at Morrisson-Reeves Library. "People have great memories of the bookmobile. Whenever we talk about the book truck, people talk about their childhood and visiting the library at a local park or something like that. We've listened to our community, and they really want to be able to access the library outside of our main location here in Richmond, and the book truck was a great way to do that."

The book truck is the same concept as a bookmobile, but the design is far different. Rather than a converted bus that patrons climb up into, the book truck is a modified Ford F350 pick-up truck. Since it's built on a regular truck chassis, it doesn't require a commercial driver's license to operate, the library says.

"[It] has a custom cargo box in place of a bed, and it allows us to have shelving units on the side. The panels lift up, and people can walk right up to the book truck, select materials from our shelves, pick up holds and other things without actually having to walk inside, as they would in a more traditional bookmobile," says Imhoff.

It also will offer public internet access through an onboard Wi-Fi hotspot, and various library programming like off-site story times and computer classes. There will be regular book stop locations, as well as outreach visits to schools, elder care facilities and community events.

"We can pull up to a local park and people can connect to the internet through the book truck. We can bring our patron checkout laptops with us so we could have computer classes, have people use the computer or use their own device in the park or other places where they might otherwise have a hard time accessing high bandwidth internet," Imhoff adds.

The book truck's schedule is still being worked out, but it should be operational in the new year. Patrons will be able to request books and materials online for pick up at a particular book truck stop.

The project is funded by a $50,000 grant from the Wayne County Foundation, along with funds from the Wayne County Contractual Library. Contractual libraries don't have physical buildings, but are established under state law to provide tax-payer supported services to townships through a contract with a physical library.

Morrisson-Reeves' previous bookmobile provided those services from 1968 to 2009, but since then, patrons have had to drive to Richmond for services.

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