What's in a Name?

I love living out here in the "boondocks" of Calhan, Colorado. We've got pretty much everything one needs within walking distance: grocery, small restaurant, Post Office, Town Hall, hardware store, feed store, butcher's, elementary & high school, park, walking trail, even an insurance company! (We used to have a bar and a bowling alley, but the smoking ban killed those. That's another story for another day....) Anyway, here in Calhan, the one thing we don't have is a library. Fortunately, our wonderful Pikes Peak Library District provides us with Bookmobile services twice a week.

Well, that is, they used to. Very soon, Pikes Peak Library District, in their wonderful wisdom, will no longer drive the Bookmobile out to Calhan anymore: From now on, they will be driving the Mobile Library Services um, vehicle? Van? RV? Truck?

Yup. They're changing the name. It's the same old vehicle it's always been, wonderfully stuffed to the brim with books, DVDs, videos, cds, and the absolutely nicest, friendliest, people you've ever met. They will still remember most of our names, even when we forget theirs, they'll still bring out, special-delivery-like, any books you put on hold through your internet account. They'll still make spot-on recommendations, and they'll still take the time to ask how life's treating you. Just like they always have.

Nothing changes except the name.

Mobile Library Services. Wow... what a mouthful. I wonder how much the consultant who came up with that brilliant idea got paid!

When I first moved to Calhan nearly ten years ago, I was thrilled to learn we had a bookmobile. It brought back a flood of some of my most cherished childhood memories. In the small New Jersey town I grew up in, every Wednesday was bookmobile day. Not only did we get out of the classroom for an hour, not only did we get to go and pick out ANYTHING we wanted, they brought special books they picked out just for us!

My mom adored Wednesdays, because it was the one day of the week she didn't have to fight me to wake up in time for school. She'd pop her head into my bedroom and quietly say, "Laura, wake up, it's Bookmobile day!" I'd be out of that bed like a shotgun! Mom never "grounded" me like normal kids... if I got in trouble, she took my library card away. "No bookmobile for you this week, young lady!" It was devastating to me!

For me, seeing the Bookmobile driving down the road was like seeing the ice cream truck. "The Bookmobile is here! The Bookmobile is here!" And I know, first-hand, that many of the young people here in Calhan view the Bookmobile parked in front of our school every Tuesday exactly the same way I did in my youth: as a Special Day, the Bookmobile day.

Bookmobile. What a wonderful word. Regardless if you utilize their services or not, when you hear that word, you have an immediate image in your mind, and maybe even a few warm-and-fuzzy feelings, like I do. Bookmobile. You know exactly what the word means and exactly what it does: It brings books and other library materials to those that need them.

Now, try out the new name in your head: Mobile Library Services um, Mobile. Um, Vehicle. Um, Van... I don't know about you, but Mobile Library Services simply leaves me hanging. I feel like there is not only a word missing, but a meaning. I can just see the teacher's having fun with this at the school: "Hey Kids, don't forget, tomorrow is Mobile Library Services Day!"

Can you imagine the new ice-cream-truck-like mantra? Kids yelling in excitement, "The Mobile Library Services thing is here! The Mobile Library Services thing is here!"

Yeah, right.

I don't understand why Pikes Peak Library District made this silly decision. In the nearly ten years I've been using their services, I've never been able to complain about anything. There's no other public service like it. It's the one public service NO ONE dreads going to, unlike the Driver's License or Vehicle Registration offices! For starters, the employees are always HAPPY!

And honestly, I'm not really complaining now about PPLD, I'm simply questioning: Why change a name that has such a long, gloriously wonderfully emotive history as the Bookmobile? It's the PERFECT name: It's a vehicle that brings you BOOKS! And more, more, more!

You see, Bookmobile day is an OCCASION, especially for those of us living in small, rural communities that simply do not have the financial resources to support a full-fledged library. Mobile Library Services Day... it just doesn't have the same feeling.

I cannot understand why this rush to change something that simply didn't need fixing. PPLD, I beg of you, fire the consultant who convinced you that somehow, for some stupid reason or another, the name Bookmobile was no longer trendy enough. Go back to calling it the Bookmobile.

Or if you really insist on changing a perfectly good name, at least come up with something at a bit more catchy? Oh wait, I forgot... there simply isn't anything catchier than Bookmobile.

I can't wait till Saturday. It's Mobile Library Services Day.