‘Library-a-go-go’ summer initiative set to bring the joy of reading to some unusual places.

Librarians at the beach?

This summer a group of Newport Beach library workers will hit the city sands, and the parks, and even the mall ? anywhere people hang out.

The new “library-a-go-go” launches Thursday, and it will have librarians like Genesis Hansen traveling to public places to give out books and hype summer reading.

“We’re basically going to go anywhere large groups of people gather in the summer,” said Hansen, a reference librarian at the Newport Beach Public Library. “The whole premise is we’re going to be popping up at random in different places and passing out paperbacks and promoting our library.”

Library administrators came up with the idea and pitched it to the “pep squad,” a group of librarians including Hansen who work to promote the library. They ran with it.

They’ll debut the program this week. Teams of three library workers will drive around to beaches and parks and possibly Fashion Island to hand out free books, answer questions and give people information about the city’s library system.

The traveling bibliophiles will hand out books for kids and adults, alongside packets of sunscreen and bookmarks bearing library information. They’ll also have a laptop computer with a wireless Internet connection, so people can sign up for library cards on the spot.

People who don’t want to keep the books after reading them can drop them off at the Friends of the Newport Beach Library’s bookstore.

One of the reasons to get out and about, library marketing specialist Katherine Mielke said, is to let people know how the library has changed.

“I still have people ask me, ‘Do you still have those card catalogs with those drawers?’” Hansen said. “They don’t even know that it’s all on computers now.”

Besides DVDs and databases of information, the library now offers iPods containing recorded books that can be checked out, and library officials are looking into podcasting, which makes library programs available to download online.

Out-of-towners who are just visiting Newport for the summer can use guest log-ins to check their e-mail on library computers, so they don’t need their own library card.

A recent news article noted that Santa Ana had become the latest city to cancel its bookmobile service, with most cities citing high costs and declining use. Mielke said that’s not an issue here, because Newport’s roving library is intended to encourage people to visit the regular library.

“This isn’t really a program that replaces the library, whereas the bookmobiles, I think, were trying to do that,” she said.

“This is a way of saying, ‘Don’t forget, there’s books!’”dpt.12-library-CPhotoInfo1V1SRKDV20060712j29ojqncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Librarian Genesis Hansen holds some of the books that the library will give out at spots including beaches and malls around the city.