Vending machines filled with books are being installed in schools, public spaces across the U.S.

A student looks at a vending machine filled with books.

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/WBIR)

published 13 February 2019

Instead of getting a soda or candy bars out of the vending machine, students at Clinton Middle School in Tennessee are getting books.

Academic coach April Meyers had the special vending machine installed in the cafeteria, with books costing only $1; the money raised will go toward buying new titles. "We just hope it will spark a little more interest in reading for some students who maybe don't have the opportunity to go to the bookstore and choose their own book to keep," Meyers told WVLT. "It will just excite them about reading and increase some of our literacy here." Eighth grader Hazel Hensley said she's "around a bunch of bookworms," and expects the vending machine to be very popular.

Something similar is happening in Houston, where the Houston Public Library recently installed two vending machines downtown. To get the machines open, people just have to scan their library cards and enter their PIN, and the machine is able to tell which books have been borrowed. "We believe that the library should be everywhere," Houston Public Library Executive Director Rhea Lawson told Houston Public Media. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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