Bookie Feel on the Web

I had a virtual conversation, the other day, with a group of media specialists near Minneapolis.  I enjoyed the warmth of my tiny basement office, while they had 4 degree temeratures facing them (-16c).  Alas, I’ll be flying to Minneapolis on Sunday (high of 4 degrees).

To the right is a picture that one of the participants e-mailed me.  I still find this a little creepy ;-). 

One of the things that we talked about was expanding their services through their web presence, and this conversation came back to me this morning, when I read about the announcement that book seller, Borders, will be seperating from Amazon.com to offer their own web site.

“We’re literally starting with a blank page,” said Rob Gruen, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing at Borders, of its efforts to build its own Web site.

What I find interesting and what may be of even greater interest to school librarians is that their goal is to make the web site as bookstore-feeling as possible.

“We really want it to feel comfortable for people who love to come into book stores,” said Kevin Ertell, vice president of e-business for Borders.

For instance, on the beta, or test version of the site that Borders launched late last year, it has developed a “magic shelf,” which is a virtual bookcase that displays recommended books, movies and music.

There might (or might not) be some useful models on this and other book store sites to help school library media specialists to better serve their patrons through their web presence.  The beta for Borders’ new site, from which you can not yet purchase books, can be found at:

    http://beta.bordersstores.com/online/store/Home