Out of the Box and into the Kiosk
I’m always thrilled when my MLIS courses have intersecting ideas. Aside from Hyperlink, I’m also taking Professor Buckley’s Outreach class. In that class, we are learning how to create engagement with the community to plan meaningful outreach. Part of what I have been fascinated with is how creative many libraries have been in creating outreach that literally goes into the community when community members can’t get to the library.
The intersection of the hyperlinked library and outreach is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this semester. How can we reach new communities through creative ways? Warner (2024) discusses ways to revolutionize the library, what is offered, and how to do it. She describes using kiosks as an alternative means of outreach, “ It might be at the kiosk that the potential library cardholder first discovers that libraries offer more than just books but also technology, health and wellness items, and museum passes. This is an excellent way for libraries to alert a growing community to their offerings, bringing them physically into the library buildings.”
Warner is thinking outside the box (and in the kiosk) to consider how to reach different communities. As populations grow and the needs increase, libraries have to think about creative ways to reach those communities. Reading this article had me thinking about how we can use the kiosks aside from reaching out to communities.
California State University at Long Beach uses kiosks to distribute short stories that are 1 minute, 3 minutes, or 5 minutes long. While the kiosk looks very futuristic, the stories aren’t written by AI. They are written by authors who contribute the short stories to the university press. This is a great way for students to take a study break and read some short fiction!
These kiosks are innovative ways for libraries to share stories, books, and outreach!
Kiosk at Cal State Long Beach
Camacho, D. (2024, October 2). New library kiosk offers fast fiction for busy students. Long Beach Current. https://lbcurrent.com/artslife/2024/10/02/new-library-kiosk-offers-fast-fiction-for-busy-students/
Warner, L. (2024, January 17). Revolutionizing Public Libraries: Three ways that alternative service delivery strategies can meet. . . Medium. Retrieved November 15, 2025, from https://medium.com/@lauracwarner/revolutionizing-public-libraries-ff7fed3d12c5
Thank you for the post! As a student I worked at Michigan State’s Main Library. On a recent visit I got a story from one of their short story machines: https://lib.msu.edu/shortedition/machines
Our library is looking at kiosks as well, but we’re struggling with how to implement the remote service into our current workflow. I do think we’ll get there at some point, because we have places in our service district that would benefit from them.