The coast of Norway features a number of islands which remain unreachable except by boat, especially in the winter. As many of these communities are too small to maintain their own libraries, librarians on the mainland conceived a way of bringing books to these isolated readers: a library boat!
In 1959, the first library boat, Abdullah, was commissioned by librarians in Hordaland and subsequently funded by the Norwegian government. After just a few months at sea, it visited over 150 tiny towns in three counties, lending over 7,000 books. In response to this success, in 1962, the Abdullah was replaced by a larger boat, the Fjord Guide, so that patrons could come aboard to watch films, meet authors, and browse more freely.
Given the popularity of the library boat, the Norwegian government commissioned a custom-built ship in 1963. The Epos has been serving the west coast of Norway ever since. Active from September through April, the Epos carries two or three librarians and about 6,000 books at a time, in addition to the captain and crew. Often, they are accompanied by performers who put on clown acts or puppet shows for children. The beloved status of the library boat is reflected by the numbers of books lent: in 2005, after only 126 days in service, over 53,000 books had been checked out by patrons on islands!
Library boats are popular in other parts of the world as well. Check out these videos which show versions in Laos and Chile!
Unusual Libraries 
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