Independent Bookstore Survival Tips

The rise in rents, spread of corporate chains, popularity of online shopping, and increase in e-book reading have made it difficult for small bookstores to survive.
 

BookCourt in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, is doing more than cobbling together a living.
Photo via thebrooklynink.com

Despite it all, some indie bookstores are actually thriving. How are they doing it?

Using six independent bookstores in Manhattan and Brooklyn as examples, New York magazine points out how small booksellers are not only surviving but thriving in the current climate. What's their secret? According to New York magazine, for a small bookstore to be successful these days, it would help if it:

1. Owns the building in which the bookstore operates. This is the case with BookCourt, located in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. The owners of BookCourt, Henry Zook and Mary Gannett, bought the building, 163 Court Street, back in 1984 for a mere $160,000. By buying the building outright, Zook and Gannett have avoided the fate of some of their fellow booksellers, who are struggling with or have fallen victim to skyrocketing rents.

2. Sells the space for a commercial shoot, as powerHouse Arena occasionally does. powerHouse Arena is housed in a cavernous, 10,000-square-foot space that is in a riverfront neighborhood and onetime warehouse district in Brooklyn. Since the bookstore has so much space at its disposal, owner Daniel Power rents some of it out for photo and advertising shoots, making a pretty penny. In fact, just one major commercial shoot - say, for a big Internet provider - could cover the store's rent for an entire month.

3. Outlasts the nearby Barnes & Noble location. Operating on the quiet corner of West 10th Street and Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, Three Lives & Company noticed an uptick in business after the Barnes & Noble up the street closed. "Suddenly," owner Toby Cox told New York magazine, "people realized we were here. I never thought of Barnes & Noble as a competitor. I didn't think our customers overlapped. But after they closed, I realized they had been taking our customers after all."

For more tips for small bookstore survival, spotlighting three more independent bookstore success stories, check out the New York article "6 NYC Independent Bookstores That Are Thriving" at THIS LINK.

You Tell 'Em, Daryl

Someone said they don't read because "reading is for nerds."
 

Above text and GIF via Librarian Problems

Missed Connections at The Strand

The Strand is among the oldest bookstores in New York City, and it's famous for its "18 miles of books." It's also the site of more than a few "missed connections."
 

Missed Connection no. 2 @ The Strand, via http://drawnyc.tumblr.com

Browsing "missed connections," in which someone who felt as if he or she "shared a moment" with anther person and, in an attempt to reconnect, posts an ad looking for that person on craigslist, can be quite amusing. Hoping for another chance at love (or perhaps something less romantic and more carnal in nature), a man who was shopping at The Strand posted this "missed connections" ad on craigslist yesterday:

To the lady organizing the health books at the Strand - m4w - 48 (East Village)

"I was wearing the blue jacket and reading pages of The Antidote as you organized and packed the table full of health books at the Strand. You were focused on your task and that impressed me, plus I dig your purple ornaments."

I'm genuinely curious about what her "purple ornaments" could be. Maybe they're earrings? Or some sort of hair accessory? Or perhaps a tattoo? At any rate, I wish this guy the best of luck. (Having been to The Strand, I can attest that those who work there are an attractive bunch.) Another missed connection at the bookstore inspired the illustrator Sophie Blackall to recreate it on paper for her book Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found, published in 2011 by Workman Publishing Co. In her book, Blackall illustrated the following "missed connection":

Polka dots in the Strand - m4w - (Union Square)

"Ack! 'Round 7pm or so...I was browsing the shelves and saw you on the other side. I swear I glimpsed our entire future together in that brief moment. It was beautiful. And then someone asked you for the time. I mean c'mon, who doesn't have a damn time-telling device of some sort these days! Oh, if only I'd thought of that..."

The poor guy was obviously annoyed that another shopper at The Strand put the moves on the object of his affection faster than he could. Let's hope that these two were able to reconnect after all because of the craigslist ad, which got a much higher profile than it normally would have, thanks to Sophie Blackall illustrating it for her book.

If you ever go to New York, spend an afternoon shopping at The Strand. Then maybe you, too, will be the focus of a bibliophile's search for true love in a "missed connections" ad on craigslist.

Tips for Librarians Doing a Long-Distance Job Search

As I near the end of library school, I'm thinking about packing up everything that I own and moving to a different part of the country (or even the world) for a library job and for a change of scenery. So what should I, and others who are considering relocation, know when doing a long-distance job search?
 

Travelin' down the road for something new.
Image from www.entrepreneur.com

Amelia Zavala Vander Heide has tips to offer on this very subject. In an article for INALJ.com titled "Job Hunting 300 Miles Away," Vander Heide shares her own experience of being newly graduated from library school and planning a cross-country move with her husband, who was applying to colleges in California. "It was hard graduating and sitting on my degree for a few months while my husband and I waited for decision letters from colleges throughout California," she said. "When I knew we were for sure moving to the Bay Area and moving at the beginning of August, I finally knew I could start sending out applications." So Vander Heide's first tip is "Timing, timing, timing." But "how soon is too soon" to apply for a position that's in another part of the country?, she asked. Many would say the sooner you apply, the better.

In addition, Vander Heide advises that you "Know the area" where you're planning to move. I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with my current city when I first moved here, and everything worked out quite well. Still, "understanding the geography helped me narrow my job hunt. I was moving to an area of great opportunity, but did I really want to commute more than an hour each way? Knowing and really understanding the population and the economy has helped me immensely in public librarianship, even though I do not live in the city where I work," said Vander Heide. I suppose it would be ideal if you have family members or friends who already live in the area where you would like to move to. That way, you could visit and while there take a look around to get a sense of things. If your family or friends are especially generous, maybe they'll offer you a couch to crash on or a spare room to live in while you get your bearings - and start your job - in your new city or town.

Amelia Zavala Vander Heide has other helpful advice for doing a long-distance job search, including how to explain a relocation to prospective employers and what to do if you're contacted for an interview for a job that is hundreds of miles away. Read what she has to say at THIS LINK. And good luck!

Atypical (Real) Rules for Library Conduct

While volunteering at the library, I sometimes pause to look at what's posted on the walls. I've noticed a calendar of events, as well as artwork by local artists. I've also caught sight of a sign that spells out what behavior isn't OK in the library, for instance, smoking, petitioning on the premises, roller skating. These rules seem typical. However, in other libraries, rules for patron conduct are quite atypical.

Mental Floss has rounded up "9 Very Specific Rules from Real Libraries," and some of these library rules are indeed unusual. But rules generally are made for a reason, and it's amusing to think about what could have been the incident that caused management at these particular libraries to put their foot down. In the case of the public library housed in Goodnow Hall, which is in a hilly, woodsy area of western Massachusetts, it's not hard to guess how this sign came about:
 

Image via Mental Floss via Rock Creek on Flickr

Yet in the Yonkers Public Library in Yonkers, New York, one has to wonder if one too many kids have come in carrying balloons that inevitably burst, nearly scaring the life out of older patrons and/or library staff, and thus warranting this sign:
 

Image via Mental Floss via Scouting New York

I'm wondering: how could kids bringing balloons into the library become a common enough occurrence for library management to put up the sign to begin with? Is there a carnival across the street? A party supplies store next door? A clown on the corner giving away balloons? The mind reels. (For the record, I have yet to see a kid or parent bring a balloon into the library where I volunteer, and I've been there for months. So what's going on in Yonkers, New York?)

But I must say say that this sign, posted in a library at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, is completely understandable:
 

Image via Mental Floss via LibraryKitty on Flickr

It's nice that patrons want to be helpful. (The other day, I was tickled watching a toddler return books to a shelf in the children's section. It was clear that the kid, who couldn't have been no more than two years old, knew the general area where she - or her caretaker - got the books from. But of course, she didn't quite know where they should go. I thought it was adorable that she made the effort, and I was happy to reshelve them.) But reshelving books is what I and other library volunteers and staff are there for, among other things. Leave it up to us. 

For all "9 Very Specific Rules from Real Libraries," see the Mental Floss link HERE.

A Proverb About Books from 'Sherlock'

Image via beejohn.tumblr.com

"A book is like a magic garden, carried in your pocket."

~ Chinese proverb from Sherlock, season 1, episode 2

More Librarian Misconceptions

"So...you're a librarian? Then you probably read a lot of books, huh? Right?"

Nope, not really. In my very first class in library school, the professor told us point blank, "If you want to become a librarian because you 'love to read' and think you'll be reading all day, then you better reconsider your choice of profession." 
 

She's a librarian and she's not old or wearing her hair in a bun, although she is wearing a cool Ewok hat.
Image via http://lookslikelibraryscience.com

These days, a librarian's job is largely technology and marketing-oriented. And a lot of what librarians have traditionally done when it comes to books - checking them out, selecting them for the library, etc. - is increasingly being automated or outsourced or done by paraprofessionals. Speaking on a personal level, I'm far too busy these days to pick up a book that's not a textbook. Between work, library school, volunteering at the library, and trying to maintain a semblance of a social life, I just don't have time to read for pleasure.

"I'm sure you read a lot" is just one of many misconceptions that a lot of people have about librarians. "Not all of us are book nerds," said Aimee Graham. "There's the art, culture, tech-y, and music nerds, too. Most of us have a specialty, while others are generalists. Like everyone else, we have our hobbies." Graham took up the task of "Debunking 10 Librarian Misconceptions" in a March 24, 2014, article for INALJ.com. Some of the other misconceptions about librarians that Graham succinctly addressed in her article are:

You need your master's to be a librarian?
Yes. In most positions (I have seen a few requiring a bachelor's and experience), an ALA-accredited master's degree is required. In some positions, two advanced degrees are required, all depending on the institution and subject of the position.

Why are so many librarians not from the area?
We are a pretty nomadic people. If you want to move up, that sometimes includes moving out. Jobs can be difficult to come by in the areas surrounding ALA-accredited schools, popular cities or rural areas, so be willing to relocate if you want to advance.

Aren't librarians old and grouchy, wearing cardigans and hair in a bun?
Sure, there are some still in existence, but the Hollywood stereotype is almost dead. A great deal of librarians today are younger, many with tattoos, piercings, and even multicolored hair and extremely outgoing personalities. But it depends on the environment in which we work, so it varies.

Don't librarians just stamp books?
Those duties are usually saved for student assistants or circulation staff, and very rarely will a physical stamp be used (a lot has gone electronic). We do a wealth of duties, ranging from reference and instruction, web design, webinars, professional development, etc. We are far more advanced than just stamping books (although there is nothing wrong with that duty in itself).

Stereotypes about who librarians are, what librarians look like, and what librarians do are amazingly persistent. But with her article for INALJ.com, Aimee Graham has done her part to help dispel old notions about an evolving profession. To read all 10 librarian misconceptions that Graham has debunked, see her INALJ.com article at THIS LINK.