LISNews: Librarian Blog Since 1999

PALM COAST, Florida -- These days it seems everybody's trying to make a buck, including public libraries.

And library officials are coming up with some creative ways to do just that, such as handling passport applications and adding merchandise sales and cafes. Long-range plans at the Flagler County Library in Palm Coast call for creating an inviting atmosphere for patrons, with a coffee shop serving as the centerpiece. Officials also hope leasing floor space to a vendor will provide a little extra cash for the library.

"We want people to be relaxed and feeling good," said library director Holly Albanese. "People like to have a cup of coffee when they sit and read the newspaper or the first chapter of a book. We want them to be able to do that here."

Incorporating a casual café into the traditional public library mission of lending books, providing meeting rooms and offering classes to the public is part of a national trend, according to a study by the Primary Research Group, a private marketing company.

"Even the places that don't currently have one (a café) are looking to do it in the future," said Marcia Warner, president of the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association. "We're kind of johnnys-come-lately. Museums have been doing this for a lot of years."

More ideas for selling your library at the Lib Success Wiki.

Awesome? Funny? What's going on? This is a library they're talking about, right? Well, it's not just any library. It's the Rizal Library, which apparently has figured out how to communicate with students in the language they use. And so, even though the messages on the posters are essentially the eat-your-vegetables kind, the manner in which these are conveyed has caught the attention—and aroused the interest—of the audience for which they were intended... something that not many library signs I've seen have ever done. More...

Fifteen reasons for partnering with your local bookstore from Bookselling This Week.

In September 2009, two things became apparent to us at Lake Forest Book Store: one, e-reader sales were hurting independent booksellers, and, two, the libraries of Lake County, Illinois, were interested in and equipped to host author events, but couldn’t do so in a manner that was cost effective. These realizations led to a flurry of activity and a vigorous round of phone tag that resulted in our arranging to partner a store event with a library (and, thus, its larger venue and audience). Nearly two years later, Lake Forest Book Store works with 15 of the 20 libraries in Lake County and has plans to partner with the remaining five by the end of 2011.

When Lake Forest Book Store approached the current 15 libraries, we proposed that the store would bring authors for library events, but only with the stipulation that we would be able to sell books. The libraries were ecstatic, and the whole partnership has been beneficial on every level.

Just as bookstores need customers, libraries need patrons. State funding is based on user traffic, and lower library usage equals a smaller budget — and fewer opportunities for the community.  Author events have proved a reliable method of building patron traffic. In the past, a library that wanted to host an author had to pay a speaker’s fee, and library charters prevented internal book sales. Without the bookstore-library partnership, these events required more of a budget than they would end up stimulating.

Interesting collaboration between Seth Godin and Amazon....that I just heard about.

"...with 170,000 books published a year, how is it possible that anyone
finds *any* book?"

Why wasn’t I told? – the domino
project