Travelers can find all kinds of goodies in airport vending machines – candy, soda, cosmetics, electronics. But in Oregon, only at Eugene’s Mahlon Sweet Field can an airport vending machine dispense a good read.
The airport houses one of four Short Story Dispensers by the French publishing house Short Édition in the state (Wasco County Library hosts dispensers in The Dalles, Dufur and Maupin). The Eugene dispenser, however, is the most popular, producing the second most printings in the entire country, second only to that in the Planet Word Museum in Washington, D.C.
“That airport in Eugene literally puts them on the map,” Kristan Leroy, Short Édition international sales director, said of the companies dispensers. “We have 300 dispensers in the U.S., in train stations all over the world and 55 public libraries in the U.S. Eugene’s is even busier than Atlanta, the busiest airport in the world.”
Readers can thank the Eugene Public Library, the Eugene Public Library Foundation and the airport, of course, for the free reading material. But it all starts with airport assistant director Andrew , who first learned of the dispenser while at a conference in Philadelphia – home of Short Édition’s U.S. satellite office.
“When I saw it in Philadelphia, it had an effect on me,” Martz said. “Free stories. I said, ‘I want that in my airport.’”
Martz reached out to the library and in March 2022, the dispenser was installed.
The dispenser Martz saw in Philadelphia offered short stories broken down in categories by the approximate time the story might take to read. But Martz feared readers who took longer might feel bad about their reading ability. Instead, the Eugene dispenser offers readers a choice among stories by local authors, worldwide authors and children’s authors.
“I wanted to get the local writers involved,” Martz said. “So, we broke it down differently. The categories of local, kids and worldwide just spoke to me more than how long it takes to read. People read at different rates. It felt more accessible to go by the categories we did.”
Short Édition charges $7,000 plus shipping costs for the dispenser and $2,300 for an annual subscription charge for content. That covers copyrights for the authors, access to the portals and unlimited access to content, Leroy said. Authors of stories submitted through Short Edition are paid for their work, both at the time of acceptance and end-of-year royalties. Lane County authors agree to showcase their work for free on the local Dispenser to reach a broader audience, while retaining their copyrights.
The airport and library and library foundation share the cost of the dispenser which sits at the top of the escalator/stairs to the second floor.
“We love that the airport helps us afford it,” said Eugene library director Angela Ocaña. “We want people to know what it’s like to be a Eugeneian or to just be able to read and have these small connection points. Sometimes flying is hectic; you’re trying to corral the kids, your partner, your rush to a gate, or you’ve got time to kill before your flight. I think it’s just a really, really good way for people to come together and share stories, and we love that.”
As of August, the Eugene Short Story Dispenser had printed out 71,431 stories or about 2,000 to 3,000 a month. The local stories are vetted by the library staff, while stories in the other categories are chosen by the Short Édition staff and entered into a data base. In a recent tally, library marketing director Laura Philips found 34% of readers chose stories from local authors, 39% chose worldwide authors and 27% chose stories for kids.
“There’s a real love of the written word for people, and this gave us a unique way to feature short, little stories, by people who live in Lane County,” said Ocaña. “Not every story makes it in. It’s based on the appropriateness.” Graphic violence and gratuitous foul language are two red flags. Otherwise, “it’s everything from folks who’ve never written things before to people who have published their own local books. It’s everything under the sun, every type of topic, from poetry to short stories. We’ve even gotten submissions from kids.”
Stories can be submitted through the Short Édition website, or Lane County authors can submit through the Eugene Public Library website. The maximum character count is 8,000 characters or about 1,400 words, which is typically about a five-minute read, Leroy said.
The response to the dispensers has been “overwhelming,” Leroy said. “We have a customer satisfaction questionnaire. … People are asked, ‘What do you think about this concept?’ And it’s five stars across the board. They all say, ‘It’s amazing.’ ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ And, “It’s so nice to get it free.’ We get a lot of social media attention from Eugene.”
Most hosts of the dispensers change out the paper anywhere from two to three times a month, depending on traffic, Leroy said. “The Eugene airport changes out their paper once a week because they have such a high volume of high readers and travelers,” Leroy said.
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— Lori Tobias, for The Oregonian/OregonLive
CLARIFICATION -- This story has been updated to reflect the following correction: Not all authors receive payment. Lane County authors agree to showcase their work for free on the local Dispenser to reach a broader audience, while retaining their copyrights.
CORRECTION: Oregon is home to four Short Story Dispensers by the French publishing house Short Edition. One is hosted by the Lane County Library in Eugene and three are hosted by the Wasco County Library in The Dalles, Dufur and Maupin. This post has been updated to reflect the correction.