California: Public Libraries: "BART Turns a Station Into a Library"

From an NBC Bay Area Report:

[Last] Friday, BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit] riders passing through the Millbrae BART station will be able to check out one of 800 books from an automated library,  a transit spokesman said.

The book checkout system, called “Library-a-Go-Go,” will be the  first of its kind to be installed at a West Bay BART station, spokesman Jim Allison said.

A similar system was installed at the Pittsburg/Bay Point station  in the East Bay in 2008.

Anyone with a library card from the Peninsula Library System will  be able to use the book-lending machine, which Allison said is like checking  out a book from a robotic librarian.

Library Book Lending Machine Opens at Millbrae BART Station (via BART)

Anyone who has a library card for one of the PLS libraries can use the machine to borrow one or more of the 500 available books.

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BART has a similar program in the East Bay but this is the first West Bay station to get a machine. BART was the first transit agency in the country to offer this service to customers with the opening of the first machine (called Library-a-Go-Go) in May 2008 at the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station.

“Just as our East Bay customers have enthusiastically embraced Library a-Go-Go, I’m sure our San Mateo County customers will be equally happy,” said BART Board Member Joel Keller. Keller has been selected as the first-ever Millbrae liaison from the BART Board.  “We are always looking for ways to improve our riders’ experience on BART and this certainly fills the bill.”

The Free2 Read & Ride machine features a touch screen, similar to an ATM screen, that library card-holders use to select books. The books are then delivered through an opening in the front of the unit by a robotic arm.

More Info from the Peninsula Library System Web Site

Filed under: Libraries, Public Libraries