From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Northland Public Library placed kiosks [cost $25,000 per kiosk], which look like candy vending machines, in December at the YMCA on Nicholson Road and at the Ross Community Center on Ross Municipal Drive. Northland is the first library in southwestern Pennsylvania to offer the service.
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Because Northland’s 30,500-square-foot building in McCandless serves residents in such a large area — 60 square miles among Ross, McCandless, Franklin Park, Marshall and Bradford Woods — the library purchased the kiosks, called Northland’s Offsite Modern Alternative Dispensers, or NOMADs, to better serve patrons in its most northern and southern coverage areas, said Sandra Collins, Northland’s director of library services.
“Our building is … too small for the people we serve, and this is one of the ways that we can provide service in other locations,” she said.
Of the 44 libraries outside the city of Pittsburgh that belong to the Allegheny County Library Association, Northland had the highest 2012 circulation number, which is the number of items borrowed — 976,438, according to the county association. That number increases to 1.1 million when including the items Northland sent to other libraries to be borrowed, Collins said.
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