Libraries vs. Bookstores - the war for information availability

"Weinberger writes about the difference between finding what you want and discovering what you want within the context of a bookstore. Do libraries do a better job of helping people find and discover what they want or not?"


My mind immediately leaps to the next question: a digital bookstore, like Amazon, or a brick-and-mortar bookstore? A digital library, like an academic IR, or a physical library? That is what makes the difference to me. I can go into our local bookstore - either of them, the used, rare bookstore or the big box chain store - and immediately find someone to help me find what I want. I can do the same at the local library. In both cases, I skip trying to figure out their illogical (to me) or obscure (hard to find) cataloguing system, and just find the Human Who Knows Where All Things Are. (This, by the way, is the same system that my family members use when they want to find something in our house - wallet, socks, glasses, dog, passport, broken fishing rod - they ask me, the Human Who Knows Where All Things are in the Home. Kind of like a house elf in the Harry Potter series, but hopefully, more attractive. :)

But, I hate spending the physical energy to actually go into a store; plus, years of living in third-world, non-English-speaking countries forced me to use Amazon.com and Apple iTunes to get any entertainment that I wanted. (Or, basically, any thing I wanted.) So, I am very comfortable both finding what I want, and discovering what I want (browsing), using these venues. I've never had to use any human help (such as IM) to get what I want from these sites. And, I can do it in climate-controlled comfort, in my pajamas, at any hour of the day and night. It's waaay more convenient. Plus, as Weinberger pointed out, there is a lot more descriptive data available in the digital words; it's so much easier to search. I love it.

So, to me, brick-and-mortar libraries and bookstores are on the same level of ease, and are below digital libraries and bookstores. That holds true across the board - hardware stores, grocery stores, clothing stores - I find it much easier to shop on-line than actually drive there.

I admit that this is a highly personalized area. I still go to brick-and-mortar stores with my sisters, for the social aspect; I still take my daughter shopping, for the same reason, and because she has to have an article of clothing on her body before she will approve it. Life circumstances forced me into learning to navigate on-line shopping resources, and now I am very comfortable with them; I know many people who are not. But, overall, I don't think that libraries and bookstores do a better job of helping people find or discover what they want; digitalization and the internet do a better job.