Our Libraries
July 11, 2005
Drill cart teams take message to the streets
Imagine a drill team marching in a parade. Individuals are in formation and they move together with precision.
Push your imagination a step further and imagine each drill team member pushing a book cart. You know, a metal cart with four wheels, several shelves on each side, commonly found in libraries. Now you have the picture of what library book cart precision drill team would look like. You can embellish the picture with costumes, decorated book carts, music, perhaps a drill leader. It's a fearsome sight!
If your imagination needs a real picture, visit www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/lb/main/drillteam.cfm and view the team in Marin County, Calif. If you put “book cart drill team” (in quotes) into your Internet browser, you will have a choice of pictures from a variety of teams.
As far as I can discover, the first library book cart drill team was started in l983 at the Fairfax (Virginia) City Regional Library. By now, such teams are appearing everywhere. In this area, there are a number of active drill teams, including the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library, Evanston Public Library, Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, and Cook Memorial Public Library in Libertyville.
Recently it was my great pleasure and delight to be the “color commentator” for the Book Cart Drill Team World Championships held in conjunction with the annual conference of the American Library Association. Fifteen teams from all around the country entered. Many had catchy names such as “Cart Attack” from the Racine Public Library or the “Cart Tarts” from the Oak Park Public Library or the “Cartwheelers” from the Lincoln Library in Springfield.
Each team had four minutes in which to perform. Unlike a parade, the performance was held indoors on carpet. In an actual parade situation, the carts wheels are very noisy on concrete or asphalt. This makes it hard to hear the music or commands of the person in charge. Also there are potential physical hazards such as potholes, railroad tracks, or being positioned behind horses.
The winning team was a group of students from the University of Wisconsin, Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Madison. Named, “Dewey et. al for my Baby” the group stole the judges' hearts with their verve and style with some gymnastics thrown in for good measure. The second place team was the Thousand Oaks Library precision Drill Team from Newbury Park, Calif.
Each of the 12 book cart performers on this team pushed carts decked out to be horses, complete with head, tail and saddle blanket. Team members had fancy cowboy style costumes and even a major and a drill leader with two banner carriers. The third-place team was called Readin' and Rollin' from the Clermont County Public Library in Batavia, Ohio.
In talking to participants in the competition, the idea of having fun and perhaps embellishing the image of librarians as fun loving people, able to poke fun at themselves, is the usual motivation for forming a book cart drill team.
Convinced your library needs a book cart drill team? I suggest you peruse “The Library Book Cart Precision Drill Team Manual” by Linda D. McCracken and Lynne Zeiher. This book has it all: reasons for forming, tips on recruiting participants, planning performances, sample routines, getting publicity and lists of other teams around the country. It also has many pictures of book cart drill teams, in case your imagination just can't go this far.
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Sarah Long's "Our Libraries" column in the Daily Herald is published the first Sunday of the month. The Daily Herald is Chicagoland's third largest daily newspaper, with a circulation of approximately 128,000. 
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