All You Wanted To Know About Book Vending Machines
Last year I had been seeing book vending machines all over social media and really wanted to see what I could do to get one on my middle school campus. I wrote a grant for my district’s education foundation, which pretty much took up the entire amount that we’re allowed to ask for. Unfortunately, the grant was not selected—however! I am going to link it here for anyone who wants to try and get one for their campus. Feel free to make a copy and edit however you wish. Through the grant process, my principal really loved the idea of getting a book vending machine for our campus. She took the idea to our PTA and they were equally thrilled. Not to mention the elementary that feeds the most students into our middle school had already had their PTA approve a book vending machine for their campus. We ordered our vending machine through Global Vending Group and purchased Inchy’s Bookworm Vending Machine.
Our vending machine arrived with no problems and we were able to stock it with titles that I have been accumulating the past six months since we decided to move forward with the vending machine. For middle school we stocked it with mostly middle grade titles, but the bottom row will be reserved for young adult books for those students who prefer more mature reading. I made sure to put YA stickers on the front of the books on that row. The machine came with 50 tokens, but we purchased an additional 50 to have extras. Check out the video below to see how easy it is for students to put a token in, select a book and have it drop down for them to take and keep for FREE!
Now for the questions. Many librarians have asked the questions below on social media and I’d love to answer what our plan of action is moving forward.
Equity: How are all students given an opportunity to get a free book? Right now we are starting to use the first round of tokens at our Awards Assembly next week for our Outstanding Unicorns (our district mascot) for students who have shown good behavior this 9 weeks. In the future I’d like to use it for the ELA classes with the highest check outs of physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks. We have an EBIS Behavior support team that I would like collaborate with for those students who show improved behavior, during Circle Times/Restorative Justice, for students who earn Commit Cards for getting caught doing something under the umbrellas of Respect, Integrity, Responsibility, etc. We would also like to see if we can tie attendance awards to it for those who have improved in that area, as well as grade level incentives, teacher incentives in the classroom and definitely working with the shelter that enrolls students at our campus to find ways to give tokens the kids in youth housing and emergency shelter. We definitely want to be inclusive and make sure all have an opportunity for a free book.
Needs: Right now the only way students can get books to keep is if we have a book fair and although I host three a year, with the last one being a Buy One, Get One Free event, there are many students on our campus who cannot afford to shop at the book fairs. I always try to get teachers to make wishlists so I can buy the books from their book boxes to support classroom libraries so our kids have even more access to titles in both the library and their ELA classrooms. But to have a book to keep that’s theirs? It’s incredibly powerful for so many of our kids so to have this opportunity to provide that for them is the most important thing and the need that I feel is the most important being met here.
Funding: I am lucky enough to be someone who has served on a state reading list committee the past three years. I get hundreds of graphic novels sent to me to read and review for the Texas Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List through the Young Adult Round Table in the Texas Librarians Association. I was able to put many of them in my library for check out, but there are many that qualify as ARCs that cannot go into a library collection. As Advanced Readers’ Copies they must be given away (not sold!) so instead of giving them to students like I usually do I set them aside for the vending machine. I also get ARCs myself as someone who reads and reviews books on social media. Authors, publishers and street teams send me books that have been published, as well as some that haven’t that I will use for the vending machine as well. I also had the privilege of getting many titles donated by my wonderful teacher friend who left the classroom recently. She donated hundreds of ARCs and gently loved titles for the machine. Lastly, I plan on using my Scholastic dollars to fund newer titles for the vending machine as we move forward. We will keep it stocked every morning so that titles are revolving for any students who don’t necessarily like any of the ones we have currently. As the books drop for kids, more titles take their place.
I will keep everyone updated on the success (and trial and errors I learn along the way) in relation to this vending machine. Stay tuned on here and on social media!
Students loading the book vending machine for the first time!
Ribbon cutting ceremony 1/12/23
