We are asking that you all read the following and please respectfully reach out to your local library branch and see if we can do something about the lack of “Motorcycle Information” or special interest books available to riders.

Below is a letter a BCCOM member put together and we are happy to share it will you all:

“The British Columbia Coalition of Motorcyclists and the Association of Injured Motorcyclists quotes ICBC sources in stating that over 300,000 or 1 in 15 BC residents holds a class 6 motorcycle endorsement.

The New Westminster Public Library has 25 books on stained glass, 10 on dolls, 7 about multiple sclerosis and 50 about various bugs. Nearly all are large, full colour, hard back books. At a glance, stained glass book prices were $27, 10, 30, 50 and 50 for an average of $33.40

There are 3 books dedicated to motorcycle riding: a book of tales from Hell’s Angels founder Sonny Barger about riding and chance, and a fair bit about criminal activity including murder and theft. A how to book of adventure riding, and hidden away under a different section, a book by Tim Severin about following the Silk Road in 1960 something as an adventuring Cambridge history student. There are 13 “coffee table” books about bikes, 5 being exclusively about Harley Davidson. What about all the Japanese bikes and all the European bikes?

Libraries, since antiquity before Ephesus and Alexandria have been repositories of information not widely available locally. Interlibrary loans and acquisitions were scribes sent out to find and copy, or buy copies of hard to find or previously unknown works.

Our library holds a selection of fiction that covers maybe a third of the floor space of the library. Bodice rippers and science fiction stand as thick as wheat stalks in Saskatchewan. And recent television shows on DVD. And several hundred expensive cook books.”

These are some of the book titles that we’d like to see in stock.

• A Ride in the Sun” by Peggy Thomas
• Adventures of a Motorcycle Despatch Rider During the First World War” by WHL Watson
• Land Beyond the Ridge”, Batson.
• Hell’s Angels” Hunter S Thompson
• Overland to Egypt” by Gordon May