Library Dean Elizabeth Dill poses with one hand on a Short Édition Kiosk button and the other grasping short stories printed on the first floor of the University Library. Photo Credit: Delfino Camacho

Literature-loving students busy with schedules can now get a reading respite from a short story dispenser on the first floor of the University Library.

Made by French publishing house Short Édition, the library acquired the mechanical kiosk this July. 

“I saw it on LinkedIn; another University had one in their library, I think it was in Michigan, and that gave me the idea to do one here,” Library Dean Elizabeth Dill said.

“That was the first one I saw, and I thought, what a great way to do outreach for our library and our university community,” she said. 

CUHK Library has installed a new Short Story Dispenser in its main lobby to promote literature and cultivate a culture of reading and writing on campus.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Library has installed a new Short Story Dispenser in its main lobby to promote literature and cultivate a culture of reading and writing on campus.

The state-of-the-art Short Story Dispenser, created by French publishing house Short Édition, offers a unique, innovative approach to promoting leisure reading. Users can choose from three categories – “English”, “Chinese” and “CUHK works” – and receive printed short stories, essays, poems or comics on a long strip of paper, allowing them to read printed works during brief moments of downtime.

Hyattsville public library

The Hyattsville public library now has a new kiosk that dispenses famous short stories and poems for free. Designed by French publisher Short Édition, the small kiosk prints out a story on a narrow strip of paper that resembles a receipt, but is thicker.

Visitors to the Hyattsville library can choose from one-, three-, or five-minute reads. The selections include famous poems and short stories in the public domain as well as works from Short Édition’s own catalog, and the authors receive royalties for their pieces.

Principal Foundation's story dispenser at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company, August 2023. Courtesy Center for Fiction, Principal Foundation

Three organizations are teaming up on a short story contest meant to entice readers to consider the almighty dollar through “the universal art form of storytelling”

The Principal Foundation, a philanthropic grantmaking organization with a focus on financial literacy, is collaborating with the Center for Fiction and French independent publisher Short Édition on a short story contest called Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative.

Finalists’ fiction and creative nonfiction will be distributed for free at participating bookstores and libraries via Short Édition’s Short Story Dispensers. The dispensers, which operate with the touch of a button, randomly select a short story and print it on a paper scroll that resembles an oversize receipt. This no-strings-attached format might entice readers to consider the almighty dollar through “the universal art form of storytelling,” said Principal Foundation director Jo Christine Miles.

The Short Story Dispenser acts as a kind of vending machine for stories — a library within a library. (Anna Schwartz / Staff Photographer)

At Emory University’s Woodruff Library, stories don’t just live on the shelves. They exist in The Short Story Dispenser, printed on glossy receipts and dispensed with the click of a button. 

 They exist in The Short Story Dispenser, printed on glossy receipts and dispensed with the click of a button. Students who stroll through the library basement may find themselves face to face with the quirky new machine just outside of Banjo Coffee. 

A metal cylinder with three buttons and a tall glass rectangle with the words “Short Story Dispenser,” the machine’s instructions are simple: “Select, Read, Enjoy.” As of Feb. 13, Emory’s new toy for voracious readers and procrastination-prone students alike has finally arrived on campus. 

Many students — including (L-R) Ethan Sun, Anjanay Nangia, Evan Bellusci and Dylan Sun — have enjoyed printing out stories and poems to read from the Short Story Dispenser on Level 1 of the Woodruff Library.

The word most people use to describe it is “cool.”

Yes, there is a cool new interactive machine near the Banjo Coffee shop on Level 1 of Woodruff Library — a Short Story Dispenser. The dispenser is an Emory Arts project to highlight poems, prose and comics by Emory authors, particularly students, as well as literature from writers around the world.

Wichita engineer Kim Burton, a senior manager in product support for Textron Aviation, was at the Eisenhower National Airport on Wednesday flying out to California to a conference for women in aviation and discovered one of the Wichita Public Library’s sh

Wichita engineer Kim Burton is so popular on TikTok that when asked about views for one video she posted this week, she casually said, “I think we’re at, like, a half million for today.”

Maynooth University's new Short Story Dispenser

At Maynooth University Library a new machine can been seen in reception called a 'Short Story Dispenser'. It spits out poetry, short stories and graphics on receipt paper. They last one, three or five mins. Some fun, some serious. The machine was developed in France by Short Editions and is slowly going global at hotels, airports and libraries.

Henry McKean spoke with a short story writer and visited Maynooth University and met the students trying out the machine with the librarians...

The machine dispenses literature, in short story format. Customers can choose from a menu of printed out stories lasting one, three, or five minutes.

Among the facilities on the campus of Maynooth University these days is a small machine that looks it might sell bus tickets to Dublin.

In fact, it dispenses literature, in short-story format. Customers can choose from a menu of printed out stories lasting one, three, or five minutes.

And unlike most vending machines, this one doesn’t charge.

Reynolds demonstrated how to use the Short Story Cube at Dutton/Brady Junior High and High School in Dutton on May 24.

For the first time since the pandemic started, author Jason Reynolds took to the road for his first in-person tour in his role as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a program of the Library of Congress and Every Child a Reader.
Reynolds has held the position since 2020, and he headed to Montana last month to restart his in-person school visits. The tour, under Reynolds’s Grab the Mic: Tell Your Story platform, was in collaboration with digital publisher Short Edition to provide Short Story Cubes, devices that allow students to create, edit, and print stories of their own making. We’ve gathered a selection of photos from the events.

The library can change the dispenser's categories and the story content over time. City Of Eugene

The Eugene Airport worked with another city entity recently to install a dispenser at the top of the escalator. No, it’s not for hand sanitizer. It’s for stories. The Eugene Public Library Foundation funded the dispenser, which prints short stories on wide, recycled receipt paper. Will O’Hearn is Director of Library Services.
He told KLCC, “It’s touch-less buttons, so you just wave your hand over one of the three areas, one says ‘local’ and that’s purple, and then there’s a red one that says ‘world-wide,’ and then there’s one for kids that’s kind of a bluish green.”