In 1962, eight years after he had presented the City with the keys to the McLaughlin Branch, Colonel R.S. McLaughlin generously donated a truck and trailer to serve as a bookmobile to the City of Oshawa.

The trailer was electrically lit, heated and cooled by a special meter that the Public Utilities Company of Oshawa installed at each site. The trailer was the only air-conditioned department of the Oshawa Public Library at that time.

In its first three months of operation, 111 adults and 357 children registered at the travelling library. The first full year of bookmobile service was a busy one with 191 stops and a circulation of 23,326.

In 1978, a new bookmobile with four-wheel drive and automatic transmission replaced the old truck and trailer and was officially presented by Miss Isabel McLaughlin.

No matter the weather or the road conditions, the bookmobile successfully provided library services to ten sites, extending library services to all sectors of the city. Each Oshawa district was visited bi-monthly. Children who could not visit the main library benefitted from this unique travelling library service.

Over the course of 34 years, bookmobile services met the needs of a rapidly growing community, bringing thousands of books to Oshawa’s communities where there were no library branches.

Bookmobile services were discontinued in 1994.