Has anyone used a lending machine with Polaris? We are going to have an off-site D-Tech LendIt machine at the new rec center across town, and I wanted to see if anyone else has already done this. It would not be a locker set up, it would be more like a vending machine that can hold 500-1000 items.
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I don’t think they’re DTech branded, but we have a member library with a similar sounding “vending machine” style set up.
I don’t think there was anything too special about the setup, other than it is its own branch within Polaris. None of the items are holdable and it uses 3M SIP to perform the CKOs.
I don’t think they have any software that alerts them if it is empty or anything, they just have it on a regular rotation during the week to go out and check on it and restock.
One interesting thing that was shared with me the other day was that a library who has a vending machine in a rec center with a pool 
. They can’t stock paperbacks in that machine. The humidity in the building is too high and it causes the paperbacks to warp, and the machine can’t dispense them reliably.
Hi Wes, thanks for your comments. I hadn’t considered the humidity issue and how it may affect the materials. I don’t think our new rec center is going to have a pool, there is a separate natatorium, so I think we are OK.
In Aug/Sept, we installed 2 kiosks–Envisionware’s 24Ls. One is at a community park, the other at a government building. Both are within sight of open water (island life, so) but are well-elevated. So far, they have held up well to our high humidity and 2 tropical storms. The kiosks are their own branches in Polaris. The items in the kiosks are not holdable, so truly vending machines. Designated staffers are notified via email if return bins are full, machine is off-line, inventory is low, etc.
One “gotcha” was size of items; a handful of the B&T Opening Day collection we purchased were too large for the kiosk. We’ll be paying closer attention to future acq for dimensions, esp. juve materials.
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