News

Amid budget cuts, Minnesota library saves bucks with checkout kiosks

Great River Regional Library hopes to install more kiosks at branches with circulation figures of less than 100,000 items a year

October 29, 2014

The Minnesota-based Great River Regional Library installed its first self-checkout kiosk in 2008 at the St. Cloud Library.

Since then, the organization expanded kiosks to a number of Minnesota libraries in its 32-branch system, including Buffalo, Delano, Elk River, Monticello, St. Michael and Waite Park, according to area news source SCTimes. Now the organization checks out approximately 43 percent of customers at the self-service stations.

The library hopes to install more kiosks at branches with circulation figures of less than 100,000 items a year. The maneuver is a cost-saving measure as the library looks to trim its 2015 budget.

Plans call for kiosks at the Staples and Becker locations next. Each new station costs around $13,000, the article said, but the library would save an estimated $8,900 a year by reducing library assistance staff.