Get to Know Alicia Tapia, Founder of Pop-Up Bike Library Bibliobicicleta 

Dr. Alicia Tapia is a Filipina-Mexicana educator, researcher, school librarian, and founder of Bibliobicicleta. If you are in the Bay Area, you may have seen her riding around town. You certainly can’t miss her! Bibliobicicleta is a pop-up bike library that can hold up to 100 books in tow, which is not an easy feat given the unforgiving hills of San Francisco! Bibliobicicleta visits and serves at bicycle and literacy events, parks, beaches, and loves to build community performs homeless outreach throughout the city. 

Bibliobicicleta’s mission is for all ages and backgrounds to discover a love of reading, learning, and bicycling – “Page by page, book by book, pedal by pedal”. We had the opportunity to catch Alicia to learn more about her and her Little Free Library on wheels.   

1. Tell us about yourself and how/why you started Bibliobicicleta? 

Hi! I am Dr. Alicia (pronounced A-lee-see-uh) Tapia, my pronouns are she/her I am Filipina-Mexicana, and I am proud to be from the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i. 

I started Bibliobicicleta in 2013. The idea for Bibliobicicleta arose from a simple desire to re-distribute perfectly good books into hungry readers' hands. As a librarian, I come across a lot of like-new, donated books that just need to be delivered to the right audience, and the Bibliobicicleta is a fun and fossil-free vehicle to do just that. Good books are vehicles for building empathy, compassion, power, and liberation through knowledge. Good books are also a great escape to other worlds. They have the power to expand our minds and hearts. Oftentimes we serendipitously encounter a book at the perfect moment in our lives when we need to read it. I like to think that Bibliobicicleta is part of that serendipitous magic.


2. What makes Bibliobicicleta different from libraries, bookstores, and Little Free Libraries?

The books you’ll find on Bibliobicicleta are curated and come to you on wheels, are free, and don’t need to be returned! If you hang out where the Bibliobicicleta is stationed, you just might meet a neighbor or someone in your community you never knew before.  


3. What was one of the biggest obstacles you faced along the way while creating Bibliobicicleta and how did you overcome it?

Aside from the road and traffic obstacles I face while biking the Bibliobicicleta, I’ve also had a variety of challenges creating and running the Bibliobicicleta, all of which were overcome through the power of community. Bibliobicicleta is only possible because of the generosity of the San Francisco community and beyond. I crowdsourced the funds to build the trailer through Kickstarter in 2013, the books are donated by neighbors and friends, and when I’ve run into issues with storing the trailer (because I have no garage space), very kind and community-driven individuals have offered their space to help me out (Shout out to Jay of Scenic Routes bike shop). When I needed to upgrade the bike to an e-bike with disc brakes to navigate the Bibliobicicleta more safely around the city, folks in the community helped me raise the funds to pay for that upgrade too. As an educator who doesn’t have a lot of disposable income, I am greatly appreciative of that.


4. In moments of self-doubt, what do you do to build yourself back up?

In moments of self-doubt, I remind myself that anything is possible if I just focus my energy on the steps I need to take to accomplish my goals.  I remind myself how far I’ve come in my personal and professional career, I remind myself that if I could do it then, I can do it now.  I give five minutes and a page of my journal to let in that “self-doubt” and listen to where it’s coming from… but that’s it, then I let the self-doubt out and close the door on it and move on to finding a quiet space and routine to revisit my goals and my values, assess if they’re in alignment, and then just go for it 100%, no excuses.  I remind myself that I come from a lineage of hardworking ancestors who didn’t make excuses but instead made courageous strides for themselves and others.  Every excuse or bit of self-doubt is a waste of energy that could be put toward just doing what needs to be done.  When it comes to the Bibliobicicleta… if I feel tired, I allow myself to rest.  In the early years of Bibliobicicleta I used to push myself to get out there once or twice a week and would be hard on myself when I didn’t.  Now, I listen to my body and the rhythm of my life and determine whether I’ll be able to get out there and distribute the books with good energy.  If I have any bit of reluctance or feel too tired, I listen to that.  No one wants a book that has been distributed bitterly, I’m not trying to transfer that kind of energy.


5. Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently? If anything? (Either or both professionally or personally)

I wish that I had learned at a younger age that the energy I put into my professional goals needed to be balanced with attention paid to the kind of person I was becoming in my personal life and my mental and physical health. Now I have the wisdom to strive toward true authenticity, honesty, and balance. In the end, I don’t think I would have done anything too differently, or else I wouldn’t have learned the lessons and motivation to improve along the way.


6. What types of books do you carry? Do you accept book donations? If so, how can people get them to you? 

I carry all kinds of books in like-new condition. As far as accepting donations, I only do sometimes. I’m pressed for storage so I can’t take all the donations that people want to give me, but once in a while I’ll do an all-call if the book supply is running low. If folks want to get in touch with me to coordinate a possible donation, they should message me on the @bibliobicicleta Instagram.


7. What is one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far ever since starting Bibliobicicleta?

I’ve learned that it doesn’t take much to make someone’s day. A simple smile, wave, or free book can uplift others and that generosity of spirit ripples forward in ways we can’t imagine and hardly see, but it happens! I’ve also learned to see every person as a book filled with formative short stories–it’s important to suspend judgment and not judge a book by its cover. The variety of people I’ve met through Bibliobicicleta, and the stories of their lives continue to inspire and challenge me.


8. What does it mean to be Filipino? 

More than anything for me, to be Filipino is to be hardworking, determined, and fearless but it also means knowing how to have fun and how to take care of people! It means having an almost instant camaraderie with other Filipinos and exploring those connections. To be Filipino means honoring my ancestors. I honor my Nana who worked in libraries and always made me feel loved, seen, and safe. I honor my Papa by tapping into my athletic side and staying active, cooking. I honor my great-grandparents who made the journey from the Philippines by ship to Hawai’i, worked on the sugar plantations, and created a more hopeful future for their family. It also means having pride in my Filipino ancestry and striving to find connection with other Filipinos rather than difference. Being Filipina means being a good role model and ancestor for my students and future generations of my family.

 

9. What are you currently working on?  and how can people reach you? 

I’m excited!  I’m currently preparing to co-teach a course in Manila at Ateneo University this upcoming summer. I’ve never been to the Philippines before but I’m looking forward to experiencing the country and being surrounded with the Filipino spirit. I’m doing what I need to prepare for the course itself but I’m also learning Tagalog. I love learning languages, and believe that linguistic features reveal a lot about the culture and worldview of people. I’m looking forward to learning more and visiting the land of my ancestors.


10. How can people reach you? 

The best way to reach me is to follow and message me on Instagram @bibliobicicleta. If you’d like to support the Bibliobicicleta, you can do so through our Patreon page.



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