100 librarians, 200 wheels, 500 kilometers, 9 days

Reference librarian Annie Pho on a break during last year’s international bicycle tour from Amsterdam to Brussels. This year’s tour travels through France.

One hundred librarians from all over the world will bicycle through the French countryside next month.

UIC librarian Annie Pho will be among them.

As they cycle the 500 kilometers (about 310 miles) from Montpelier to Lyon Aug. 5-13, “we’ll be stopping at libraries and learning about some of the things they’re doing in the community,” said Pho, visiting reference and instruction librarian at the UIC Daley Library.

“People will see 100 cyclists wearing yellow vests and wonder that the deal is,” she said. “We’ll stop in towns and talk to them.”

Pho also made last year’s ride, from Amsterdam to Brussels.

The event is sponsored by the International Association for Library Advocacy.

Editor’s note: this story has been updated – the group will cycle 500 kilometers, not 500 meters, which is only about one-third of a mile.