Read, ride, and go.

Yesterday, I woke up at 4:30am and caught a BART train all the way to the end of the line. My library unveiled something that is kind of a big deal, a book vending machine.



It felt a little bit like a human game of Space Invaders as I tried to give everybody a bookmark. People arrived in waves as a buses dropped folks off at the station, and almost everyone willingly took a bookmark, even the ones running to catch a train. A little surprising, since I probably wouldn't have taken one if I had offered me a bookmark. Even more surprising was hearing people say, "Oh, I saw it on TV," or, "I heard about it on the radio this morning."

It was amazing and entirely unremarkable at the same time. Amazing because I know about all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes. Unremarkable because, sitting there right next to an automated ticket vending machine, our little (well, actually, rather big) book machine seemed totally integrated into the way people live their lives today. Which is exactly where the library should be, right?