Skyline stations may start lending library books via vending machines in an attempt to both boost the appeal of the Honolulu rail system and make library books more accessible as limiting staffing shortens branch hours.
The idea stems from the Hawaiʻi State Library System, which started thinking during the Covid-19 pandemic about how to cater to book-hungry patrons during branch closures and staffing shortages that still persist.
Meanwhile, the city’s transportation department sees it as another opportunity to beef up the rail system by making stations more like community hubs with lively activities.
Plans for an 18-month pilot project to test the idea received a thumbs-up Wednesday from the City Council but are still in the early stages. For starters, the library needs to sign an agreement with the city’s Department of Transportation Services for use of space.
Mallory Fujitani, Special Assistant to the State Librarian, said other next steps include beginning the procurement process to purchase the machines, each of which she said costs about $50,000, and figuring which books to stock and how they’ll be distributed.
Skyline’s Middle Street station, set to open on Oct. 16, is one of two locations proposed for the library vending machine pilot program.
(David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
The resolution passed by the City Council during its monthly meeting Wednesday, which was introduced by council members Augie Tulba and Radiant Cordero, calls for an 18-month pilot program to install library vending machines at two Skyline stations.
A Win-Win?
If all goes according to plan, patrons could scan their library cards and choose from a selection of library books, which could then be returned to either one the vending machines or any one of the library system’s 51 branches.
Fujitani said some of the branches have only a few full-time, permanent employees. In those cases, she said, “you’re limited with how many public hours you can provide to the community.”
Hours vary between branches. The Waipahu branch, for example, is closed Sundays and Mondays and is open until 6 p.m. on two days and 4 p.m. the remaining three days. Kaimukī’s branch, on the other hand, is open six days per week and until 7 p.m. on two of those days.
People who work during the day might not be able to visit their local libraries until after the branches close. The library vending machines would provide an option for people interested in borrowing books after hours.
“People want more weekend hours, or late night hours, after work hours,” she said. “We just don’t have the staffing.”
Hours vary between different state library branches, often depending on staffing. At the Hawaiʻi State Library, the main branch, closing time is 7 p.m. on Thursdays and 4 p.m. most of the rest of the week. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
As the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System struggles to maintain services, the city wants to add more attractions to its nascent rail system.
Department of Transportation Services spokesperson Travis Ota said his department supports the pilot project as part of its strategy — along with newly planted fresh produce — to add vibrancy to Skyline stations.
“We believe that this measure will foster innovation and enhance activities at our Skyline stations,” he said in an emailed statement, “making them true community hubs where we are currently planning regular community activities, food hubs, and other services.”
Stations are still a long way from that vision. Skyline’s initial leg, which opened at the end of June 2023, operates only between East Kapolei and a defunct Aloha Stadium. Ridership hovers around 100,000 people per month, a drop in the bucket compared to TheBus, which is more expansive and transports about 3.5 million per month.
Mixed Reactions
Skyline’s second leg, which will include the airport and is expected to draw more ridership, is scheduled to open Oct. 16. Its upcoming new eastern terminus, at Middle Street, is the proposed site for one of the pilot library vending machines.
The other site is at Waipahu Transit Center, where Bryan Rabilas, 49, was coming home from his shift at Pali Momi early Tuesday evening.
Rabilas isn’t much of a reader. He prefers listening to short science fiction stories on YouTube, and he said his commute is short anyway — only about eight minutes on Skyline and a few minutes of biking on either side of that.
But he likes the idea of sprucing up the rail stations. When he travels to places like New York City, Thailand and Taiwan, he said, he likes to pick lodging near train lines.
“Just before you leave the rail station, you know, there’s kiosks like coffee or whatever food and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “That’s what should be around here.”
On the other hand, University of Hawaii Mānoa student Siralyn Agustin, 25, said she’s a big reader and is open to the idea of a library vending machine.
The flow of Skyline riders at Waipahu Transit Center was light early Tuesday evening. Train arrivals every 10 minutes each deposited a handful of riders on their ways home. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)
Between leaving her home in Waipahu, hopping on the rail to Aloha Stadium, transferring to TheBus Route A and riding that to UH, her commute takes about an hour — plenty of time to read a book.
“I would use it, I think, depending on what’s available in the machine and how it shows the summary or description of the book,” she said. She said her go-to genres are young adult and manga.
Fujitani said it’s still to be determined which books would be stocked in the vending machines, along with how delivery workers will stock them and which branch or branches will supply the books.
A goal of the pilot program is to figure out the answers to these questions and gauge interest in a larger, more permanent presence.
The pilot project could take months or longer to start up, Fujitani said. Her department still needs to draft and sign an agreement with the transportation services department. It also has yet to begin the procurement process to purchase the machines.
The federal government shutdown that began Wednesday also may be a new stumbling block.
Hawaiʻi’s library system normally gets about $1.5 million of federal funding each year, which she said would help pay for the vending machine pilot project. But that may be in jeopardy as the shutdown triggers uncertainty nationwide.
“I don’t know how long they might be out,” Fujitani said Tuesday, “which could delay the process.”
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