Anna Kongs and Mavis. Courtesy photo
Anna Kongs, a first-year library and information science graduate student at the Morgridge College of Education, has transformed an old ambulance into “Mavis the Magical Bookmobile” — a mobile library and bookstore to serve the greater Denver community.
“My goal is to further the literary community in and around Denver,” Kongs says. “I want to make connections with readers, authors and people who love the written word.”
Kongs received an undergraduate degree in documentary filmmaking from College of Santa Fe. She worked in the film industry for seven years before enrolling at DU.
“I became unhappy, and I kept thinking, ‘Time is short. What do I really want to do with my life?’” Kongs recalls. “When I got to Denver, I didn’t want to wait until I graduated to start achieving my goals, so I bought an ambulance on eBay and started the mobile library.”
Kongs plans to establish a route that includes what she refers to as book deserts, or places short on libraries. She is selling books at food-truck rallies and various cultural events, but she hopes that once the route has been established, people will treat the truck as an actual library and check out a book to read and then return.
So far, the bookmobile has been part of several literary and food-truck events in the Denver area, including the Denver Zine Fest and LitFest at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Kongs has several more such events booked for the summer. Once the library gains momentum, she plans to host events, including readings by local authors and pop-up poetry nights.
To learn more about the mobile library, visit Kongs’ website.