The Subway Library Lending Machine

[jon]

Vending machine provides library access for LRT riders
Commuters check out books, movies, games
By Richard Warnica, Edmonton Journal
September 23, 2010 9:10 AM

If you're the kind of person who thinks paperbacks and trains make a natural match, the Edmonton Public Library has a new service for you.

This morning, the library will officially open its first Lending Machine, a vending-machine style book robot that dispenses library products at the Century Park LRT station.

The machine, which looks like the kind that stocks chips and candy, can hold up to 400 books and other media.

For now, the library plans to fill it mostly with items that appeal to the younger set: genre novels, DVDs, video games and the like.

On Wednesday, the products on offer included: Lords of Dogtown, a feature DVD about the roots of California skateboard culture; Spongebob's Truth or Square, a video game for the Xbox; and Ghostwalk, an Outlanders novel by James Axler.

Only the items at the front of each row can be taken out at any given time. To check one out, you scan your library card then punch in the number that corresponds to your choice.

Next to the machine, the library has installed a drop-box for library materials. Toss a borrowed book in the bin and the computer will immediately mark it as returned in your account.

The Lending Machine is the first of its kind in Canada and the first complete borrowing system and drop-off location outside a library building anywhere in the country, according to a library fact sheet.

Built by an American company, the machine cost about $20,000. If it proves popular in a year-long trial, administrators will consider adding more to the system, said Susan Wong Armstrong, a library spokeswoman.

As of Wednesday, the system was fully operational, Wong Armstrong said. However, attempts by this reporter to check out In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander Mc-Call Smith, were unsuccessful, possibly due to excessive library fines.

rwarnica@thejournal.canwest.com

ref. - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Ven ... story.html