Cumbria County Council will be hitting the road next week alongside the BBC to build momentum for World Book Day on March 2.
The library service's Access Mobile will be touring the county from February 27 to March 3 promoting the official launch of World Book Day and to encourage the idea of adults reading for pleasure.
In some locations the Access Mobile will team up with the BBC bus, which is also backing World Book Day.
At 2pm on March 2, library staff and BBC bus staff will be launching 200 helium-filled balloons, which will have information about how to get more out of reading attached to them.
The Access Mobile will be at the following locations:
Date Morning Afternoon
Monday 27th Feb Carlisle City Main Square (opposite the entrance to The Lanes) 10am - 3.30pm
Tuesday 28th Feb From 11a.m
Whitehaven town centre Until 3p.m
Whitehaven town centre
Wednesday 1st March 9.30 –12.30 Greengate Surestart Centre, Barrow 1.30 –4.30
Walney Surestart Centre, Barrow
Thursday 2nd March 9.30 –11.30 Firthview Walk, Westfield Estate, Workington 12.30 –3.00
Oval Centre, Salterbeck (with BBC bus)
Friday 3rd March From 11a.m
Kirby Thore (with BBC bus) Until 3p.m
Kirby Thore (with BBC bus)
Cumbria's larger libraries are also running a special World Book Day promotion called 'Travel round the world with a good book'. The libraries will have book displays and all titles in the displays will contain a World Book Day post card. Anyone borrowing a book from these displays is invited to post the card back to their library from their holiday destination, and the postcards which have travelled the furthest will be entered into a draw to win a £150 travel voucher courtesy of Over Sands Travel of Grange over Sands and Milnthorpe.
The participating libraries are as follows:
Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal, Penrith, Whitehaven, Workington, Ambleside, Cockermouth, Dalton, Grange, Harraby, Keswick, Kirkby Stephen, Maryport, Millom, Seascale, Ulverston, Wigton and Windermere.
"Anything that encourages people to read more can only be a good thing. Cumbria has one of the best library services in the country, but we still want to encourage people to get the most out of it. At the moment 31% of people living in Cumbria are active library borrowers, we're aiming to increase that to 35% by 2009," said Councillor Roger Bingham, cabinet member responsible for library services.