The Moby Bookmobile: A story from Region 4

Show Notes

Transcript

00:00:02:23 - 00:00:26:05
Yamila El-Khayat
This is season one of NNLM Discovery, a podcast from the network of the National Library of Medicine. I'm librarian Yamila El-Khayat and I will be your guide as we explore how NNLM is engaging with communities to provide access to trusted information for the purpose of improving the public's health. Today's episode is The Moby Bookmobile, a story from Region four.

00:00:26:14 - 00:00:31:11
Yamila El-Khayat
Executive Director of Region four John Bramble will be joining us today. Hi, John.

00:00:31:17 - 00:00:32:09
John Bramble
Hi, Yamila.

00:00:33:00 - 00:00:35:09
Yamila El-Khayat
John, what story will you be sharing?

00:00:35:23 - 00:00:49:02
John Bramble
Our story literally takes health information on the road in the form of a bookmobile that travels the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. This is a project that was started in response to the COVID-19 restrictions and continues to grow.

00:00:49:09 - 00:00:54:09
Yamila El-Khayat
Wow. It sounds like this is our podcast version of a road movie.

00:00:54:16 - 00:00:59:14
John Bramble
That's pretty true, Yamila. I spent a large portion of this episode riding shotgun in the bookmobile.

00:01:00:01 - 00:01:05:16
Yamila El-Khayat
I love this. Before we jump in. Tell us about Region four and what makes it unique.

00:01:05:23 - 00:01:27:17
John Bramble
Region four is a huge region. It comprises of nine states that spans from the Mexico border to the Canadian border, and it serves a large number of rural and frontier communities, many of which need assistance with health information. When you live hours away from a major city, you sometimes have to approach health literacy a little differently. This is where Robin Levin comes in.

00:01:28:06 - 00:01:44:02
John Bramble
She's a librarian at the Fort Washakie School Community Library. That's part of the pre-K through high school complex on the reservation, which is also open to the public where it provides Internet access and other digital literacy services to the entire community. Or it did until COVID struck.

00:01:44:21 - 00:01:49:20
Yamila El-Khayat
I'm sure COVID had a big impact on this community. What was the workaround?

00:01:49:20 - 00:02:04:19
John Bramble
it did. Robin figured out a way to take books to her constituents. I caught up with Robin in front of the Indian Health Center, where she was packing up from a successful book distribution and hitching the bookmobile to the back of her pickup truck.

00:02:07:03 - 00:02:09:02
John Bramble
So, Robin, tell us where we are right now.

00:02:09:21 - 00:02:41:01
Robin Levin
We are standing at the intersection of Ethete Road and Blue Sky Highway on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming and all the authentic traffic sounds are here. Behind us is Indian Health Center, and there's a free, open clinic every Tuesday. So this is where we set up our bookmobile racks for people to come and browse the racks, take books home.

00:02:41:08 - 00:02:46:11
Robin Levin
So every Tuesday in the afternoon, people are coming to expect that we are here.

00:02:47:01 - 00:02:48:13
John Bramble
And what is this trailer you're hooking up?

00:02:49:04 - 00:03:14:22
Robin Levin
The name is Moby Bookmobile, and you'll notice the White pickup, the white trailer, there’s Moby Dick because he's kind of a literary guy. This little trailer travels anywhere, and so it makes it convenient for folks who don't have convenient transportation. And that was really the reason why we started up in the first place. COVID hit, everything was closed.

00:03:14:22 - 00:03:43:10
Robin Levin
Schools, our county libraries were closed. There isn't a bookstore in the county except for in the lobby of the grocery store, there's a little bookstore. And that was untenable. We just couldn't live with that. This reservation is home to both the Northern Arapaho people and the Eastern Shoshone. And with two separate tribes, both sovereign nations, my responsibility is pretty clear.

00:03:44:00 - 00:04:12:11
Robin Levin
We serve the reservation population, so we need to go to them. All right, all of you gentlemen and ladies out there who do not know how to hook up a trailer. This is YouTube 101. I will talk about my pickup. It is a manual transmission. Roll down windows, no air conditioning and I had to wait six weeks before they could find it.

00:04:13:15 - 00:04:19:10
Robin Levin
In the year 2004, when I bought it, because I like to do my own work on the pickup.

00:04:19:23 - 00:04:24:13
John Bramble
How many librarians do you know where cowboy boots and know how to hook up a trailer hitch

00:04:24:13 - 00:04:31:02
Robin Levin
In Wyoming? All of us. We can add Utah and Colorado too.

00:04:34:09 - 00:04:40:18
Yamila El-Khayat
When we talk about the network being the NNLM’s boots on the ground, I think Robin’s story takes us to a whole another level.

00:04:40:22 - 00:04:53:17
John Bramble
Yes, cowboy boots and all, Yamila. For our listeners who live in large cities, it might be difficult to understand the importance of a library in a small community. I asked Robin to tell us about the role the library plays on the reservation.

00:04:54:13 - 00:05:43:09
Robin Levin
Back in 2003, one of our board members who has since deceased, sadly, Richard Ferris, said our Indian high school kids do not have access to the Internet. 2003, so we're going back in time. With his wisdom and leadership, the school district built this magnificent library and technology center for the public and for the school. And so we ran with public access from eight in the morning till eight in the evening and then on Saturday mornings as well, so that people could come in, use the computers, use the Wi-Fi, use the books and the resources we have, and promote themselves in the ways they chose education, medically.

00:05:43:10 - 00:06:08:01
Robin Levin
I want to do my banking. I want to communicate with my nephew in Idaho. In any way, whatever. So our desire is to see that literacy is an important part of everybody's home. And I think that brings us to the question of why are we part of this NNLM grant cycle, when we're a library, we're not a medical facility, but we hope to bridge that gap.

00:06:09:10 - 00:06:11:12
John Bramble
And what happened to the library when COVID hit?

00:06:11:22 - 00:06:46:23
Robin Levin
COVID was like a “crunch.” It crunched us down because the school closed and all of the students were virtual. Even the staff was not permitted to be on campus in the first months of March, beginning March of 2020. I'm a librarian. I'm not a homebody. And I thought, Oh, gosh, this is terrible. We've got to find something. So in conjunction with the State Library, there were funds made available so that we could develop a plan to address the COVID restrictions.

00:06:48:12 - 00:07:26:05
Robin Levin
Hotspots and devices and e-readers and, you know, cool technology, give it to the community was not going to work because so many of our people just don't have access to the Internet or transportation to that cool hotspot where you could access the Internet. So I suggested to, um, to the committee. How about if we just, like, use a good old fashioned idea, like a bookmobile and stock it with books that we can give away and maybe we can get some money to buy new books and books that are requested by the community.

00:07:26:19 - 00:07:29:01
Robin Levin
And that was basically how we started.

00:07:29:11 - 00:07:31:11
John Bramble
Jamila, you know the network's mission, right?

00:07:31:11 - 00:07:40:18
Yamila El-Khayat
Of course. NNLM's mission is improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health.

00:07:41:06 - 00:07:57:15
John Bramble
Right. The bookmobile was a great opportunity to make health related books available directly to the people who could really benefit from them. My region four colleague David Brown worked closely with Robin to expand on the initial bookmobile program that was funded by the Wyoming State Library.

00:07:58:01 - 00:08:13:19
Robin Levin
David took us under his wing and said, Okay, you look like you're going to qualify. We have these funds, you'll apply. We'll help you with your application. Don't be intimidated. And let's see if we can get some health related books out into your community.

00:08:14:07 - 00:08:29:19
John Bramble
Robin applied for an engagement and outreach grant and the submission was awarded. The grant was able to fund the Moby bookmobile to purchase new health related books that are culturally appropriate for the populations she serves. Here's Robin talking about what type of books were purchased from the grant.

00:08:30:09 - 00:09:01:15
Robin Levin
We selected titles that would address physical health, nutritional health, lifestyle choices like exercise and enough sleep and, you know, caring for the people who are ill in your family. But also, we wanted to make sure we had books that addressed emotional and mental health so that our readers would be able to say, Oh, the protagonist, the hero in this story is native.

00:09:01:15 - 00:09:15:05
Robin Levin
I have never read a book like this or I don't see very many. And so we started to focus on a lot of books that dealt with native themes in the health, in the spiritual world, and in the fiction and general interest books.

00:09:15:12 - 00:09:29:03
John Bramble
I had a chance to talk to Beverly Lee Hill from the Eastern Shoshone tribe. She works with Robin at the library and she's the executive director of the bookmobile. I asked her about the community response from the new content purchased from the NNLM grant.

00:09:29:19 - 00:09:44:18
Beverly Lee Hill
Right off the bat they would ask, Do you guys have any native books? And they were the first ones to go all the time. And it was crazy because we tried to keep up with the people, what they asked for. And it was, it just got bigger and bigger and bigger.

00:09:45:06 - 00:09:59:03
John Bramble
I'm happy to say that the NNLM was able to help meet the increased demand. We worked with Robin on a second round of funding, which allowed her to expand the program to the Arapaho side of the reservation. Here's Robin talking about the bookmobile schedule.

00:09:59:19 - 00:10:26:17
Robin Levin
We visit the Indian Health Service Clinic in Ethete every Tuesday afternoon, and our main function is at the Fort Washakie Post Office. They have a nice lobby and everybody gets mail at the post office. There's no street delivery, so you've got an automatic flow of traffic in and out of the lobby. And coincidentally, the Shoshone tribal offices share that lobby.

00:10:27:02 - 00:10:32:02
Robin Levin
So now we have that traffic as well. You just have to be where the people are going anyway.

00:10:33:12 - 00:10:53:04
John Bramble
Which brings us back to the parking lot of the Indian Health Center and the bookmobile hitched to the back of Robin's pickup. To really understand the significance of Robin's work. You need to understand the community where she lives. So I hopped into her pickup truck and she took me on a drive around the reservation and gave me some perspective on life here.

00:10:55:07 - 00:11:00:17
Robin Levin
Alright I have to put on my seatbelt. All right.

00:11:03:02 - 00:11:03:09
Robin Levin
Okay.

00:11:04:14 - 00:11:41:22
Robin Levin
We are traveling west between Ethete to Fort Washakie, and we're going to cross over the imaginary boundary between Arapaho land and Shoshone land. The Arapaho tribe came on this reservation quite late in the 1860’s, and the Shoshone had been here for millennia. In fact, originally this reservation was called the Shoshone Indian Reservation. The two tribes are of distinctly different origins.

00:11:43:05 - 00:12:13:21
Robin Levin
The Shoshone people come out of the Uto-Aztecan language community. So they're Aztecs originally, and through the many thousands of years of migration up into the New Southwest, through Utah and Nevada and up into Idaho, Wyoming and all of that territory. The Great Basin is Shoshone territory. Those tribes have common language. The Arapaho originated on the East Coast.

00:12:13:21 - 00:12:52:19
Robin Levin
They have an Algonquian language base. They're really different and they have different politics, different governments, different financial base. And they share the one reservation. Make for some pretty tricky times when they have to cooperate and share natural resources, for example. You know, you've heard the phrase living between two worlds. And when you work on the reservation and you respect your community, you really have to keep that in mind. So...

00:12:52:19 - 00:12:53:22
John Bramble
Tell me more about that.

00:12:54:05 - 00:13:28:06
Robin Levin
We're living in two worlds. All right. Well, native lands were stolen, traded treaties, you know, all kinds of things that the government made arrangements for. But the tribal people didn't necessarily have the same kind of infrastructure that allowed for those contracts to make any sense. Land ownership is one good example. This is Mother Earth. You don't own your mother.

00:13:28:06 - 00:14:03:20
Robin Levin
You respect her. You take her generosity and you praise her. And you don't own her. So the Treaties and the Dawes Act, the Indian Relocation Act, and the other federal policies just didn't hit a consonant note in Indian Country because it's just not conceptually the same. And even still, well-meaning people don't recognize the bias that they harbor in their hearts.

00:14:04:01 - 00:14:34:23
Robin Levin
And I'll put myself in that category. I've been fortunate to be here for so many years, and I feel that a lot of people accept me as a member of the community, but I'm a guest here. When I first came here, I was assigned to be the librarian and I was green as the springtime grass, I knew nothing, and the woman with whom I was working is a full blooded Shoshone native speaker named Audrey Ward.

00:14:35:14 - 00:15:24:10
Robin Levin
And when we met, we liked each other. All right. And she said, Do you mind if I give you a little advice? I said, Oh, please. She said, Shut up. Just shut up and listen for maybe two years. And if you do that, you'll hear who we are and you'll be able to fit in. So without trying to sound like a wise guy, my advice would be to people who want to make this confluence harmonious, I would say the same thing. Shut up and stop telling people what to do and listen. Honestly,

00:15:24:10 - 00:15:59:02
Robin Levin
If the local tribe was able to survive for, oh, let's say modestly 20,000 years. Chances are pretty good that they figured out their nutrition and their needs and their ways of interacting with other tribal people and getting along with the ecological realities of their world. Their chances are pretty good that they had it together. Do we have a lot of substance abuse issues and health issues that are devastating?

00:16:00:08 - 00:16:40:13
Robin Levin
We do. Oh, diabetes is horrific. Substance abuse, family and spousal abuse are epidemic. Now you have to figure out why it is that. Native people are a conquered people expected to live with the language and morality and spirituality imposed on them from the dominant culture that creates anxiety and depression. And you feel like a misfit in your own home sometimes.

00:16:41:02 - 00:17:15:00
Robin Levin
Right now, we see a resurgence and trying to get back to some of those tribal ways of knowing. And that's a beautiful thing. We need a whole lot more of that. So and we're going to take a little turn here and we are going to turn on the road to Sacajawea’s cemetery. Right. You'll you'll see these bed frames around some of the graves so that our loved ones who are in the next world are sleeping comfortably.

00:17:17:08 - 00:17:20:02
Robin Levin
Okay, so here's Sacajawea. Do we want to stop?

00:17:29:12 - 00:17:34:21
John Bramble
Yamila, when you visit Fort Washakie, you should really stop and visit the Sacajawea cemetery.

00:17:35:10 - 00:17:37:14
Yamila El-Khayat
Really? What was it like?

00:17:38:07 - 00:18:01:14
John Bramble
Oh, I felt a strong sense of reverence. I saw several horses wandering through the graves, seemingly keeping watch. As we stood in front of the Sacajawea’s statue. The blue sky stretched on forever. But this story wouldn't be complete without talking about Chief Washakie himself, who led a legacy that inspires the entire community here, but particularly the mission of the library that bears his name.

00:18:03:07 - 00:18:50:19
Robin Levin
Chief Washakie was a visionary and powerfully important leader. He was unlike many other native chiefs because he understood that there was a new wave of people coming here. European derivatives, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. And so it was his decision to gather his warriors, gather his families together and say, we're going to cooperate with this new reality and it will benefit us. So in exchange for allowing all of these pioneers, and travelers, and military people to come through our territory. We're going to ask for some favors in exchange. With education being the key to adapting to the new way.

00:18:52:05 - 00:18:54:08
John Bramble
What would Chief Washakie think of your library?

00:18:55:10 - 00:19:27:16
Robin Levin
Boy? That's a twist. I'm hoping that our library promotes a sense that the written word, the storytelling, the honor of accepting what the elders are giving us in whatever form it may be, is going is going to allow us to continue being who we really are. Without the library, there wouldn't be a central location where people can share that vision.

00:19:31:07 - 00:19:52:07
John Bramble
So I think it's safe to say that Robin and her colleagues know how to do outreach right. By truly understanding the community that they serve. The Moby bookmobile continues to operate while the Fort Washakie School Community Library remains closed to the general public. But the bookmobile has been so well received that it will continue to distribute books even when the library fully reopens.

00:19:52:17 - 00:20:16:10
Yamila El-Khayat
Thanks, John. It's really inspiring to hear these stories of fellow librarians rolling up their sleeves and making a difference in their communities. We'll be featuring other profiles, grants and interesting information from all of our regions during this season of NNLM Discovery. Subscribe, rate, and comment on our podcasts. Be sure to share these episodes to help us grow our audience.

00:20:17:01 - 00:20:37:21
Yamila El-Khayat
For more information about NNLM, the NLM, and to watch a short video featuring content from this story, check out the links within this episode's description. The NNLM offers free training, partnerships, and many resources that help to improve health and wellness. Learn more at NNLM.gov.