Not content seeing museums get all the glory for breaking free from the confines of their walls, our global public library partners are keen to set the pace.
First up, California’s Library-a-Go-Go machine, installed in four BART locations by Contra Costa County Library (CCCL). The machine comes from a supplier called Distec, and looks comfortingly like a bank ATM. Books are accessed via library card, and returned to the machine. It stores up to 400 books.
Back home in Sweden, these book dispensers – under an alternative name of the ‘Bookomatic’ – have been installed around Stockholm at Liljeholmen, T-Centralen and Gullmarsplan stations to test consumer response. ‘Bookomatic’ sounding very Wallace and Gromit, no doubt befitting such a contraption!
Staying in Sweden, Monocle reports that Stockholm’s city library and transport authority are importing whole libraries into metro stations. The first one is in Hogdalen station, and will be open by the end of the year – complete with cafe and shop. And people can pick up books they’ve ordered online, on their way into work. Neat.
