Via the the South Bend Tribune, George & Helene:
There’s a lot to ponder here about digital content, access and libraries. I appluad Borders for updating their business model. I urge librarians to examine how these new, streamlined services might fight the mission of their institutions
At the Borders concept store, new themed book islands are built around lifestyle genres, including travel, cooking and health. The digital centers, meantime, are geared to welcome people of all levels of tech know-how. Staffers will guide customers through the process of burning music to CDs, downloading songs to most digital music players (except iPods, which, for now, work only with Apple software) or books to a Sony digital reader. They’ll even print the cover art and fold it into a CD cover for you.
This is a model I’ve wanted to see in libraries for a long time. More:
“A bookstore is like an oasis, in a sense,” says Sharonrose Francisco of Chicago, who favors Borders, but also shops at Barnes & Noble and occasionally at Amazon. “I love being surrounded by books.”
But, what about libraries?
Finally:
“Lifestyle centers don’t want two or three department stores; they want a Borders that’s sticky,” says Ken Nisch of the retail consulting firm JGA, which counts Borders among its clients. “This concept is going to be an ideal match.”
I wish we lived in a place where the first and foremost addition to the lifestyle center would be a library.