Here is how it operates in 2004

It is based in the district called "l'Amitié", consisting of 3 rent-controlled blocks surrounded by a boulevard, a cemetery and a shopping center. Most of the inhabitants are of foreign origin.

This library service is meant primarily for the children aged 1-13 and for their parents.75 children that age live in these blocks.

In a small van with some benches and bookshelves, 2 members of the public library staff come the car park every Wednesday morning from 10 to 12 a.m.

• one week to lend books
• the next week to promote the books and get the children to love them.

The loan

500 items of all kinds (albums, story-books fictions, periodicals, cassettes compact discs and so on) are placed in small boxes. These books are removed every 2 weeks, one week all of them, the other week half of them.

The children fill in a registration form (the same in all the libraries in Besançon) and are allowed to borrow books for a period of one month. 50 kids were registered in the "street library" by June 2004.

The loan is free of charge (same in the Besançon public libraries where it is free for those under 18)

The promotion

The book promotion includes various activities such as games and story reading.

The kids are separated into small groups according to their age(3 to 7 and 8 to 12). Only 10 of them can be accomodated in the van but when the weather is not too bad , the group sits outside.

The purpose of these activities is to show the children what they can find in a library and make them independant in their choices. The younger kids get the pleasure of listening to stories.