Library wants funding for ‘bikemobile’

As part of its budgetary wish list given to the city’s Emerging Technology and Telecommunications Committee, Austin Public Library is hoping to get $3,000 for a bikemobile, a greener alternative to the commonly used bookmobile. The bikemobile would include a custom bike with a Wi-Fi hot spot that could both check out books and issue library cards, said Toni Lambert, the library’s assistant director for public services, to committee members Wednesday. The library is hoping for a total budgetary increase of $349,000, which would allow the library to hire a programmer to build mobile apps. But Lambert said that any one item within its requests would make a difference.