{"id":401,"date":"2009-07-13T08:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbicmsblog.reedbusiness.com\/elogic_660000266\/2009\/07\/13\/i-love-the-library\/"},"modified":"2009-07-13T08:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T08:10:00","slug":"i-love-the-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=401","title":{"rendered":"I Love the Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love libraries. I know this might sound crazy coming from a bookseller, but I love them. I’ve been lucky enough with our store to always be within easy walking distant of the town library. This proximity allows us easy access to the library and they to us. In our old location the librarian would literally walk across the street and she’d be at our store ordering books. Even now in a larger town with the store about two blocks away, weekly I get calls, "Do you have The Last of the Olympians<\/em>? Can I send the patron over right now?" Yes and yes.<\/p>\n

Having a bookstore so close to a library is a great thing. There is no competition between us as some might think. We each serve book lovers in our unique ways. There are some of my customers who never go to the library and vice versa. But with the economy being what it is, I’m hearing more of my customers mention that they’ve been going to the library more often. I am happy for them that they are still reading. Of course I miss their business, but I know when I see them, they’re buying things they can feel really good about. I have found that actually calling the local library to inquire about stock is a great way to calm a kid down if we don’t have the book they’re looking for. We have each saved each other from book disasters by having books on hand and reserving them. And customers who don’t know us are always pleasantly surprised to see that I’m recommending they go get a book for free across the street if I’m out of it. The goodwill that this gesture creates comes back tenfold. This sends the message that we’re more invested in you and your children reading; we just care that you’re reading, and we’ll do whatever we can to put that book in your hands.<\/p>\n

The library is also a great to place to work with. They have wonderful programming, so if our story hour has been missed by a customer, we can send them over there. Our teen book group, for whatever reasons, has not taken off, but the library’s has, so I send my eager teen readers there knowing that Katie will take excellent care of them. The two-week checkout system at the library often works to our advantage. Kids can’t often finish a book in two weeks. After two weeks, though, they’ll know if they really like the book enough to buy it at my place.<\/p>\n

In Charlotte we did more with our library, probably because we knew them better (something I’m hoping to remedy in Shelburne). Elizabeth taught several creative writing classes to kids during the summers, we hosted many author events there when our tiny store proved to be too small, and we did some book talks there. The library also spent a large amount of money at our store every year buying new books. In Shelburne we get the young adult librarian buying books, but no one else. So, this is a wall we need to break down. But these relationship take time and we can wait and build it up month by month.<\/p>\n

As the economic downturn has really taken hold in Vermont, I’ve had several customers come in after long absences and confess sheepishly they’ve been going to the library. I assure them it’s okay. I loved, I mean LOVED, the library when I was a kid, I used to go to the library and get John Bellairs books, The Great Brain and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. And I’d always have to renew the book because I was a slow reader. And it was magic to me. I loved the stamps on the card in the back of the book. There were no bookstores nearby, so the library was my book world. I feel as a children’s bookseller, we’ve created a space that’s as magical as a great library, and fun as a cool store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love libraries. I know this might sound crazy coming from a bookseller, but I love them. I’ve been lucky enough with our store to always be within easy walking distant of the town library. This proximity allows us easy access to the library and they to us. In our old location the librarian would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}