Tenleytown's New Library?

Photo from Distec.

The Reading on the Subway blog and DC1974 call our attention to the book vending machine being introduced by the Contra Costa Library system at BART stations and eventually in other public places in the county. See this story, "Libraries Will Soon Move Into Bay Area BART Stations," from NBC11.

From the article:

The Contra Costa County Library plans to unveil automated book-lending machines, a first in the country. Similar to ATMs, users simply insert a library card, select the book they want and wait for the machine to spit out the novel of their choice. When they’re done reading the book, they return it at the same machine within three weeks just as they would at a traditional library.

It’s not only easy to use, but also easy to access. CCC Library is working with BART to put the machines at BART stations and shopping centers. The first Library-a-Go-Go machine will be available at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station sometime in April.

“This is a fantastic idea,” said chairman and District V Supervisor Federal D. Glover. “It just makes so much sense to bring books right to the people, especially in the Bay Area, where we average the second-longest commute in the country.”

The first phase will put machines at three other locations, including the transit village at the BART station in Pleasant Hill, a site in Byron/Discovery Bay and a fourth location that has yet to be decided.

The machines at BART stations will hold about 400 popular and best-selling titles, both fiction and nonfiction, and will be accessible during BART hours. The one at Discovery Bay will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will hold about 270 books, including children’s books, which take up more room than adult books, according to Cathy Sanford, Deputy County Librarian. ...

CCC Library is using grants it received to buy the machines, which cost a little under $100,000 each. Costs of maintaining them will be minimal, because they can be monitored remotely from the main branch in Pleasant Hill, Sanford said. CCC Library will be the first in the nation to buy and use the machines. Another library in Westchester County, N.Y. has been testing one internally for about six months. It hopes to buy one in the future, but Westchester Library officials did not have a timeline.

The machines were created in 2004 by Distec, headquartered in Sweden. They’re already being used in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
-------
DC could use these in place of the libraries it's tearing down...

The no longer extant Tenleytown Library.