MILLERSPORT - Thirty seconds after Fairfield County District Library Director Becky Shaade put out a social media post announcing the Millersport Library Kiosk was open, a village resident messaged her to find out how to get a library card.

That’s proof to Shaade that the new machine is filling a need, she said recently as she stood in the freezing temperatures next to the outdoor self-serve kiosk.

She backs up that statement with one of the first statistics the district library system has gleaned from its newest addition: In just six days, with nothing more than that social media post to announce it, and in freezing, often snowy conditions, 27 people checked out materials from the kiosk.

Vincent Popo, the village administrator, agrees. He said he and other village employees have seen two or three people at the kiosk every morning since it began operation.

“For the longest time, this northern end of the county and the township has been trying to get some kind of library,” Popo said. “And the closest we ever got was the bookmobiles that were here.”

Shaade said the library’s bookmobile program ended about 10 years ago, and Popo said a program the Walnut Township trustees put together only lasted a couple of years after that.

Recent budget cuts at Walnut Township Schools also mean there’s no library at Millersport Elementary.

The library system was aware of the need in the community, and Shaade said she feels the kiosk is “a good compromise between the cost of a branch and no library service.”

The kiosk, which resembles a large metallic vending machine, sits under a bus shelter-like canopy in front of the Millersport Police Station on Refugee Street, next to the village office. Blue metal benches sit outside the shelter on a concrete patio, where Shaade said there would eventually be free wifi available so people can access the library’s digital offerings like ebooks and audiobooks. All of that for about $300,000. Not an insignificant amount of money Shaade noted, but less than the ongoing costs of building and maintaining a library branch.

The kiosk itself holds 350 books, DVDs and audiobooks and can be used by anyone with a district library card. Customers can also place holds and interlibrary loans from the library’s website or touch screens on the sides of the kiosk itself. Library employees will deliver the requested materials about three times a week to a set of lockers that are also under the shelter.

The kiosk is available 24 hours a day. Shaade said people without library cards can get them at any branch – the Baltimore branch is the closest to Millersport. During the grand opening ceremony at 4 p.m. on April 4, library staff will be on hand to issue cards. Shaade hopes to have other opportunities to get cards in the community in the coming months.