OK everyone, put on your long read hat and settle in. Shannon Mattern has a must read essay on the Design Observer blog Places titled Marginalia: Little Libraries in the Urban Margins.In it she looks at the recent rise of the mini, pop-up, guerrilla and ad-hoc library and tries "to figure out where they’re coming from, how they relate to existing institutions that perform similar roles, and what impact they’re having on their communities.""Nowadays we have libraries in phone booths and mailboxes, in public parks and train stations, in vacant storefronts and parking lots" says MatternMattern also covers the various mobile...
Used and Rare Book Shop Anchors Downtown Trenton Revival
Eric Maywar of Classic Book Shop in downtown Trenton, NJ.Reversing the trend of book shop closings in general and in downtown urban districts in particular that Book Patrol has been following, the Classic Book Shop, on Warren Street in downtown Trenton, NJ, is playing an important role in the area’s renaissance.Classic owner, Eric Maywar, who owned another book shop in a nearby town, was approached by the Trenton Downtown Association with the idea.It was something of a leap of faith to make the move. When he arrived four years ago there were still buildings across the street that were not...