Biblioexpress, the library in the metro that dispenses books for all tastes and ages, arrives in Milan

Inaugurated in the Milan subway, in the mezzanine of the Porta Venezia station of the M1 line, the Biblioexpress, the library in the subway.

You know the normal food and beverage machines placed in passing places to dispense coffee and small snacks? Biblioexpress works the same way, but instead of snacks and drinks it dispenses... books. It offers a completely free service that gives passengers and commuters the opportunity to choose from their favorite authors and titles. The offer is wide and up-to-date, catering to all tastes and age groups. But it does not only include books: in fact, four hundred products are available including printed volumes, audiobooks, comics and DVDs.

The project, put in place thanks to a co-financing obtained from the Lombardy Region and by virtue of the well-established collaboration with ATM, has enabled the installation of a fully robotic real library, capable of dialoguing with the Library System’s catalog, which records lending transactions in real time. This is an opportunity for passengers to choose their favorite book while waiting for the train and return it between rides.

The smart library follows the opening hours of the subway and is therefore open seven days a week, from six in the morning until late at midnight; it is accessible not only to those who are registered with the library system but also to residents of Milan, for whom it will be enough, through a QR Code, to access a page where they can register for free and in real time (with SPID or Electronic Identity Card), and then to borrow.

The new service is part of the broader Biblioexpress project, which was already launched in 2020 as part of the strategy to ensure greater territorial proximity, and which already sees thirty newsstands and five bookstores active as lending points in neighborhoods. ATM and Milan’s libraries have already been collaborating for years on"Milano da leggere," the reading promotion initiative that provides free ebooks offered by publishers, in the belief that books represent a tool for culture, updating, but also for sociality and inclusion. The new library service in the metro also renews the collaboration on the level of the latest guidelines regarding the accessible city with guaranteed h24 services reachable in 15 minutes.

In the preliminary testing phase of the machine (which is expected to be completed by the end of summer), the library will offer a book-only endowment and it will be possible to access only one loan at a time.

Biblioexpress, the library in the metro that dispenses books for all tastes and ages, arrives in Milan

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