Originally published in the Chillicothe Gazette on Oct. 12, 2025

If you’ve been to the Chillicothe Farmers Market or attended a local festival lately, then you’ve probably seen our mobile library – The Bee. It’s hard to miss. Beautifully colored and branded with the library logo, it is full of fun things and materials you can check out on the spot.

Outreach Manager Ruby Smart, along with Assistants Michelle Duncan and Trey Hitchens, make sure The Bee stays busy! In addition to Farmers Markets and festivals, The Bee makes a number of scheduled community stops. These include regular visits to some local schools, stand-alone preschools, and daycares throughout the county. According to Smart, the best part of her job is “working with so many different types of people.”

Traveling the county allows the Outreach team to connect with people in many different settings and in a variety of ways. It offers visiting patrons the opportunity to connect to the internet via The Bee’s free WiFi, and it offers a convenient way to connect patrons with desired materials. Outreach maintains 24 deposit collections in senior living facilities and other community locations, ensuring that people don’t have to go far to find what they want. They also keep materials flowing to our Book Hives in Adelphi and Clarksburg. These book lockers provide 24/7 access to pick-ups. So, you can get the new Superman DVD or latest Miley Cyrus album on your time.

Outreach also offers another amazing service called Library Access at Home. For those in our community who cannot make it to a physical branch or Book Hive, they will literally bring library items to you. Whether it be a temporary or permanent mobility issue, our Outreach Department is here to help.

Library Access at Home offers options for choosing materials. If you know what you want, you can call or go online to request specific items. But what if you don’t have an item in mind? Like, maybe you know you love Danielle Steele, but you’ve read everything she’s ever written…twice. No problem. Relay that to our Outreach team and they will find similar items that may become new favorites. Or, tell them your preferred genre – Fantasy Romance or Amish Fiction – and they’ll take care of the rest.

To get more information about requirements for this service or to learn more about Outreach in general, visit www.crcpl.org/outreach.

Saturday, October 18 will be the last Farmer’s Market stop until next spring, but there are still plenty of opportunities to catch The Bee! Check out a calendar of all its stops at www.crcpl.org/Bee. Don’t see a stop close to you? Let us know! Send your suggestions to outreach@crcpl.org.

Sheena Brown is a big fan of The Bee and an Enrichment, Communications, and Marketing Clerk at the Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library