Press Short édition

Three short story dispensers are now up and running at the Richland Library Main location at 1431 Assembly St.

The dispensers were provided to the library through a grant from the Knight Foundation. In May, Columbia was announced as one of U.S. four cities selected to receive the dispensers. [...]

“The ideal of this is to have these in the community places and events,” Tallent said. “We hope it will elevate a focus on literacy and get people interested in reading in a different way.”

Once upon a time there was a start-up with a dream of bringing the pleasures of reading to more people. Happily, this dream came true. At the push of a button the Short Story Dispenser prints out fiction that can be read in one, three or five minutes, for free.

Every writer dreams of having their work published; now Baptist University (HKBU) has found an innovative way to make it happen. Students there can see their work printed before their eyes – on a long strip of receipt-like paper from a short story dispenser. Think of it as a vending machine for literature...

Patrons at the bar of Cafe Zoetrope in San Francisco have a diversion to help pass the minutes: They can read a story. It’s not a story on their phone or Kindle, or even an honest-to-goodness book, but a story they have printed out from a dedicated machine that stands in the bar.
Short Edition is a French company which, having had success in its native country across 150 venues, turned its attention to U.S. shores.

Akron-Summit County Public Library is one of four public libraries nationwide to offer Short Story Dispensers, or kiosks that dispense written works at the touch of a button.
The Public Library Association, community publisher Short Edition and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation partnered to offer this program to four select libraries in the United States.

I loved the idea of a vending machine, a dispensing machine that doesn’t dispense potato chips or beer or coffee for money but gives you art. I especially liked the fact that you didn’t put money in. - Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola
Thusly did filmmaker Coppola arrange for a free Short Edition story vending machine to be installed in Café Zoetrope, his San Francisco restaurant.
The French-built machine is the perfect companion for solitary diners, freely dispensing tales on skinny, eco-friendly paper with the push of a button.

A new French cultural phenomenon is spreading to the US. It’s not creamy cheese or baby-feeding crazes, but very short short stories, printed out on scrolls of paper and dispensed for free from vending machines.

In Francis Ford Coppola’s Café Zoetrope in San Francisco, an odd machine stands in the middle of one of the dining rooms. It’s a tall, black-and-orange cone with a lighted monolith sticking out of its top. The kiosk, built by the French publishing company Short Edition, is called a Short Story Dispenser. It’s the first of its kind in the United States.