The Morongo Unified School District is excited to announce the opening of book vending machines in every school across the District, a significant step forward in promoting literacy and fostering a love for reading among students.
These innovative book vending machines, stocked with a diverse selection of books for grade levels specific to their school site, will provide students with easy access to literature. Each machine is carefully curated to include a mix of genres, authors and reading levels, ensuring that every student can find something that piques their interest.
"We are committed to creating an environment where reading is not just encouraged but celebrated,” said MUSD Superintendent Dr. Patricio Vargas. “By placing these book vending machines in our schools, we are giving students the opportunity to choose their own books and develop a lifelong love for reading."
MUSD is the first district in the state to implement this program district-wide, demonstrating a commitment to literacy and innovation in education. The book vending machines starting going into sites across the District last spring but officially opened this week with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony. They will be utilized during the school day and also by the ELOP program.
They operate similarly to traditional vending machines but dispense books instead of snacks or drinks. Students will receive tokens for the machines as rewards for positive behavior, academic achievements, or through logged reading time in Beanstack or with the public library, making book selection a special and memorable experience.
“These machines bring the thrill of the book fair, the adventure of a new bookstore and the excitement of the library to our students and staff with no cost to the students or parents.,” said District librarian Kat Royer. This is so much better than the book it pizzas from when I was a kid. I cannot wait to hear about what our kids are reading but also what they want to get next. This is the first step in learning to read for pleasure.”
Royer learned about the vending machines last year at the California School Library Association’s annual conference and worked over several months with Superior Text, the company that supplied the book vending machines, to get them into our schools.
“The Morongo Basin is book desert and for young people here, it’s very hard to access books that they are actually interested in reading,” said Diane Goldsmith, the owner of Superior Text. “As a librarian you can’t always keep up with what’s current and what’s interesting for your students but with a book vending machine the options are always changing and we can always add in new books to make them accessible for our students.”
Goldsmith came out to the Morongo Basin to celebrate the launch of the vending machines and she said that her team curated all of their book selections specifically for pleasure reading for students. The high school vending machines include dystopian novels, manga series and even some learn to draw books to provide some options for reluctant readers. Younger grade level machines have different picture books and some long beloved series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
“These aren't school books these are books specifically for pleasure reading,” she said. “They are meant to get students excited, engaged and to promote a love of reading.”
These machines are the most recent step in a larger, ongoing initiative to promote literacy to all students across the Morongo Basin. To learn more about the District’s literacy initiative visit https://www.morongo.k12.ca.us/page/united-4-literacy.