Booked.

For the Reaching for Equity Project, I recently started volunteering with the Alameda County Library Bookmobile. When I got there, I realized that my mom dropped me off on the wrong side of the library, so I had to walk on the opposite end of the library before reaching my volunteer station. When I got there, I was greeted by Evelyn Hom and Marta Navarrette, who head the Bookmobile and Volunteer Services. They walked me through the process I would go through every time I would volunteer. First I signed in then wrote down the number of hours I would stay for. I wrote "2 hours," then was shown what I would be doing for the next two hours.

Working in the Bookmobile is actually just processing books the entire time. The library gets all of their books from used books stores, so when processing books, first you have to look at the front and back covers of the books and use a black marker to black-out any personal information that a previous owner might have written. Then you have to flip through the pages and do the same thing, while checking for anything they may have used for bookmarks. Marta told me that they once found an airplane ticket, so she wanted to make sure that I checked. Once everything is done, you need to stamp the top of the book, and the processing is done. Processing each book is pretty fast, but monotonous, and I was able to process about 55 books before I left. While it was boring, I did have one of my friends volunteering with me, so time did go faster than if I would have been alone. Also, you are able to listen to your iPod, which could help pass the time as well.