Since 2022, Norwegian journalist Maria Pile Svåsand has had her dream job. She is the manager for the “book boat” which her grandfather built in 1963 and which her parents ran as a floating library throughout her childhood.

“I know how much it means to many people, and it is enormously great to have the opportunity to be part of shaping a cultural offer that I have unwavering faith in and that I think we need, together with skilled and committed people along the way.”

For decades, the 80-foot Epos biannually visited around 250 small communities tucked on isles and inlets along the west coast of Norway, providing library and cultural offerings geared towards children for free. It began in 1959 when a group of librarians got government funding to launch a waterborne library service with a special emphasis on children’s literature. Two boats were used before the 80-foot Epos was built specifically for the purpose in 1963 and took over the job the next year. 

Large enough to accommodate around 6,000 books, the boat also hosted readings, children’s plays, and other cultural events onboard as it traveled Norway’s fjords on 64-day tours in fall and winter, welcoming up to 150 children at a time and unloading a few hundred books and audiobooks for each community to keep until the next visit. In the summer, it was a tourist vessel. Cultural events for children, like author lectures, concerts and puppet plays were often held on board. 

“The Epos is a unique boat sailing under a literary flag,” said author Cecilie Enger. “It has stayed afloat despite ever more bridges tunnels and roads, and even though grownups and children along its route can now download e-books, order books on the Internet or watch movies on Netflix – and despite the threats of closure and budget cuts,” Enger wrote in Dagens Næringsliv in 2017.

But in 2020, after the Corona pandemic caused the spring sailing to be cancelled, there was an outcry when the regional government cut its funding, effectively ending the floating library program. “The book boat is a floating house of culture, irreplaceable for thousands of children in typical remote communities that lack a good library offering,” said Norwegian librarian and author Stig Holmås.

In August 2021, led by Alver municipality, 28 municipalities came together and organized 44 calls and 88 events, from Seljevågen in the north to Karmøy in the south, between August to November.

In February 2022, the nonprofit Fritt Ord Foundation granted nearly $300,000 (or 3 million Krones) to keep it afloat. “The book boat will bring good literary programs and debates to parts of the country that are not exactly spoiled by having an over-abundance of such cultural activities,” said the foundation’s chair Grete Brochmann. 

Sources:

How Locals Saved “the Book Boat,” a 60-Year-Old Floating Library in Norway Nice News, Aug. 10, 2023

Maria Pile Svåsand is the daily leader of the book boat Epos Tekstallianse, March 2022

Last chapter for iconic ‘book boat’ News in English, June 10, 2020

A boat brings books and comfort to isolated villages along Norway’s coast. New York Times, Sep. 15 2023

Cover image:  Bokbåten Epos