Storefront Library » shopping centers

The future of (storefront) libraries

Sam — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:14:05 +0000

Here’s an interesting prediction about the future of libraries just posted by a blogger who works in electronic resource management in New Jersey. Eric Hellman thinks the advent of ebooks and high operations costs will lead to fewer libraries but more locations in places like shopping centers and storefronts:

While the shift to digital media will cause library organizations to become larger through mergers, it will also allow branches to be effective at smaller sizes. Without the need to store a critical mass of books, tiny, storefront branches will become more practical and cost efficient. Guys in vans carrying books will become more important. When people go to their local branch, they’ll be able to use the free Google Books terminal (libraries are to get one free for every building) or other computers, check out some books, then have a coffee and socialize for an hour or so until the van makes its hourly delivery. Or they’ll do their shopping rounds and come back to pick up the bag of books waiting for them. Establishing branches in shopping areas is not only a smart thing for libraries to do, it’s also very cost-efficient.

In my own town, it seems that almost every year there’s talk of closing the branch to save money. If you look at it, you can see why—the building is massive and has to be very expensive to operate. Eventually it will be shuttered and sold, but a storefront branch down the block could deliver the same services and cost much less to run. Does it make sense for the town high school to run its own library? Not really, but that could be another branch. We’ll have fewer libraries, but more locations.

Read Eric Hellman’s full post here.

Interested in more? Check out some of the threads we’ve been following about libraries and small-scale, street-level cultural use of urban space.

Start small, aim big: Express Library, Mesa AZ

Leslie — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:41:34 +0000

We just read with interest about a newly launched “Express Library” in Mesa Arizona: 2500 square feet, open three days a week, funded by impact fees from real estate developers. Less than 7% of the start-up costs were used to renovate the storefront—the rest was spent on materials. Ongoing operating costs will be covered by the library system’s ongoing book sale.

The goal is to lay the groundwork for a future, larger scale branch in the neighborhood.

Southeast Mesa will have its first city library by May after the idea won enthusiastic endorsement Thursday from the City Council.

“This is a ‘Wow!’ moment for me,” Councilman Alex Finter told library director Heather Wolf after she outlined how her thin, money-starved staff has found a way to stretch services to the growing area.It won’t be a full library for at least several years, but it’s a start similar to the one that launched the Red Mountain branch library in 1987.
…
Staffers would be rotated into the new library from other facilities. Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh joined others in praising Wolf and her staff. “It’s ironic,” he said. “I was part of the council in 2002 that approved the library master plan that called for five additional libraries. At that time I had no idea that it would take eight years to get one of the five additional libraries.”

We are not alone.

Sam — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:22:29 +0000

On Sept. 17, 2009, a temporary branch of the North Park Library was opened in a Kmart Plaza storefront in North Buffalo, NY. The library is 4000 sq. feet and includes a computer lab and children’s area.

We appreciate how the planners created a timeline describing the steps they took in developing this project, including a list and cost analysis of considered sites. For more information about the storefront library in Buffalo visit the branch home page, blog, or facebook page.