In an age of ephemeral digital content, the library is introducing visitors to the power of words on paper. How? By installing a new kiosk that spits outs stories and poems like candy from a vending machine.
The kiosk offers free short-to-medium length stories, poems and prose. They’re all dispensed on environmentally sound paper slightly wider than a typical gas station receipt.
The idea is to offer an amusing reading option for library users while serving as a new publishing venue for students, faculty and staff.
“The kiosk gives us a new way to encourage creativity and showcase a diverse range of voices across the MSU community,” said Joseph Salem, MSU Libraries Dean.
“This is the ?rst installation in Michigan, and we’re delighted to introduce it to promote storytelling and reading,” he added.
The dispenser was purchased from Short Edition, a publisher of short literature that offers more than 80,000 short stories for users. The program was launched in Grenoble, France, in 2015.
Interest in the technology grew in the United States after ?lm director Francis Ford Coppola installed a dispenser in his San Francisco café.
The kiosk is one of four purchased by the MSU Libraries and shared in the community. Other locations include the Dairy Store, the Capital Region International Airport and the East Lansing Public Library.
Read a story remotely today: https://msu.short-edition.com/
