She takes the book bus into the future

Should a book bus hold more than books? Absolutely, answers IT educator Marina Eklund at the Regional Library in Norrbotten. When she looks at the buses, she sees rolling service centers that would even become an important resource if there were a war in Sweden.

In Sweden there are approximately 70 book buses, or library buses as they are also called. Almost a tenth of them, six, are in Norrbotten. The mobile libraries are in Piteå, Gällivare, Luleå, Boden and Kiruna. Haparanda also has a bus that is unfortunately broken right now.

Together, Norrbotten's library buses can reach almost 500 places. Some of them are communities that would otherwise only receive home services and cleaning services.

– When the bus arrives, there might be a lonely person waiting with a thermos and a bag of buns. The library bus helps combat loneliness and offers a social moment.

Marina Eklund has worked hard to improve the digital skills of staff at public libraries in Norrbotten. The front side of society becoming digital is participation, but the back side can be exclusion for those who don't keep up, she believes. In the background is an artwork by Erling Johansson.

But let's go back in time in the history of the book bus. The first book bus rolled out onto the roads around Borås, back in 1948. The inspiration came from the USA, Great Britain and Denmark. In the beginning, the book buses were seen as experiments and sometimes they were only used to transport books between different libraries. In 1965, it was decided that the buses were important for the libraries' outreach activities and a government subsidy was introduced for the purchase of book buses. The subsidy remained in place until 1998 when the book buses became a municipal issue.

– This reduced the number of book buses, because it is expensive for small municipalities to purchase a bus.

Now the number of book buses is actually increasing again and that is very pleasing.

From election booth to heating booth

When Marina Eklund looks into the future of library buses, she sees that they are important – in both peace and wartime. She would like them to be called biblioservice buses, precisely because they can offer so much more than library services. This spring, a number of buses will be polling stations in the EU elections.

– We can no longer think that the buses should only contain books. We have to think about service and the environment as well. If the worst happens and there is war, we could have emergency boxes, give people the opportunity to warm themselves or help distribute supplies and water.

An example of service in peacetime could be that the book bus collects used batteries and helps with various digital services. Marina Eklund has also been in contact with pharmacy companies. In the same way that there is a small pharmacy shelf in the grocery store, she wishes the shelf was on board the buses.

– But the pharmacy companies don't really understand this yet. They say "why? You can just go to the store" but don't realize how far some people in Norrbotten have to go to their nearest store.

Marina Eklund works at the Regional Library, which shares premises with Norrbottensmusiken, in the House of Culture in Luleå.

The buses visit many areas where mobile phone coverage is poor because masts are not allowed to be erected due to aviation activities. Thanks to the buses' booster antennas, residents can take the opportunity to do their digital errands on the buses.

Marina Eklund already sees the library buses as part of total defense, which is the sum of military and civilian defense. With the war in Ukraine came a greater total defense mindset and the buses can function as civilian liaison centers. Book buses have even been identified as an important resource by the EU.

– It's scary that we have to think about war and what the book buses can do there, but we have to. In a modern book bus, all the shelves are on carts that can be easily rolled out. If necessary, the book buses could quickly be transformed into something else. What if we could also equip more buses with solar cells on the roof?

The municipalities decide for themselves

How the buses are equipped and function is up to each municipality. The regional library cannot decide over the municipalities, but they can recommend and suggest. Through a project called SMALL (SMarta Livskraftiga Landsbyggder and pronounced so that it rhymes with “tall”), various actors collaborate on digital solutions. The project is financed by the European Regional Development Fund, Region Norrbotten, Region Västerbotten and NorrlandsNavet. In September, Piteå's book bus will go down to the Book Fair in Gothenburg.

– Piteå is a bit of a pilot in this. We want to show how we think and how it can work in our sparsely populated area.

It's important to keep an eye on what others are doing with their buses too. In Finnish Karelia there is a health bus. It even has a dentist's chair in the bus and all students up to grade six receive continuous good dental care because the bus comes to the schools.

– Could it be something for us? Maybe we can vaccinate people on the library service bus?

Marina Eklund's main hobby is knitting. She has just knitted an Icelandic sweater for her husband's colleague from South Africa. She prefers to knit not from patterns but from her imagination.

In her job she meets many people, from Norrbotten, Sweden and the world. Meeting people is the biggest plus of the job.

– I feel like I'm contributing and it gives me energy. If I work a lot for a period of time, it's hardly noticeable because what I do has an effect and I have a lot of freedom to work on these issues.

Marina Eklund is an educator by background and has never worked as a librarian. But she has several fond library memories – one of them is from her first encounter with a library.

– A new school was built and I was going to start there in the fourth grade. That's when I saw my first library and I still remember how you entered there and smelled the books. We had to go there every week and browse through the books. I read Kitty books then.

Facts: Marina Eklund

Profession: IT educator at the Regional Library.

Background: Teacher, inspector at the Swedish School Inspectorate and work with multilingualism.

Living: Raised in Älvsbyn and still lives there today.

Hobbies: Needlework – always have at least one knitting project going on.

This is how my interest in technology was sparked: "I have a twin sister and her family bought an Amiga in the early 90s. I thought you don't need a computer to communicate. But my husband bought a computer because he was so interested. At the same time, I had undergone surgery and was on sick leave for three weeks. I thought I would try starting this horrible hacker business. At that time, not many people in the school knew this kind of thing and the school principal was told that I "knew computers". So I was headhunted to write quality reports on computers. I learned Excel and things could be calculated quickly. I am more interested in educational technology than just technology. Now I am grateful for that sick leave that made me take up computers."

Text and photo: Emma Bergström Wuolo