Deyermond is known in library circles as the “book cart queen’’ because she’s credited with keeping the offbeat pastime of dancing with book carts alive in the Bay State. The staff of the Andover library has been doing it for eight years, she said. One year, they dressed in Red Sox uniforms and pushed book carts while strutting to John Fogerty’s baseball anthem “Centerfield.’’ They’ve been Keystone Kops and Peter Pans, too. Another year they went with a Batman theme.
“We found the music from the TV show,’’ said Deyermond. “We had the Penguin, the Joker, Batgirl, and Bookworm — he was a villain.’’
The idea of librarians dancing with book carts tickles Deyermond. “The public sees us in a whole different light,’’ she said.
Book cart drill teams aren’t a phenomenon unique to Massachusetts, and they’re not exactly new, either. Ever since 1983, when one of the earliest book cart drill teams formed in Virginia, teams have been sprouting up at libraries across the country, rehearsing synchronized routines and making occasional appearances at conferences, festivals, and parades.
There’s even an official Book Cart Drill Team World Championship. The American Library Association hosts the event as part of its annual conference. (The registration forms for the latest contest challenged librarians to “strut your stuff’’ and showed a woman leaping over a blue book cart with her legs splayed like a gymnast.)
The annual conference of the Massachusetts Library Association has included a book cart drill team competition for the past four years. Previous performers have included teams like the Andover Cartwheelers, Plymouth Rockettes, Methuen Des Cartes Coquettes, and the Arlington Rockin’ Robbins.
According to the official rules, judging is based on technical ability (control of the book cart, organization, precision, timing, degree of difficulty, unique moves) and artistic impression (choreography, musical interpretation, costumes, cart décor).
