From the Portland Mercury’s Blogtown PDX: Late Night WiFi in Inner SE?
There are lots of coffee shops in my ‘hood during the days and evenings with wifi, but I’m specifically looking for a place I can go on a Friday night that’s open at least until midnight, and won’t be so cacophonous and crazy that I’ll have to worry about either not having anyplace to sit down, or having some staggering drunk spill beer on my keyboard on their way to the blasting jukebox.
I still think that the neighborhood cafe complete with wifi, magazines (for browsing, not checking out), a jukebox and attractive librarian baristas is a totally viable service opportunity in many places. It would be a natural space for community events and book groups. Perhaps even more natural than newspapers and bars hooking up and hosting movie discussions. Come to think of it, running a library branch like that would be really fun! Any takers?
yes. yes. yes. would you call a librarian who can make coffee, teach information literacy, AND be attractive a “blended librarian”? or is that already trademarked? maybe it could be a smoothie bar and we’ll call them “blender librarians”.
no seriously, i think it would go over really well, but the idea’s been done in so many communities already – at least in those that would utilize such a place. i’m thinking of coffee shops that have later hours (or are 24 hours) – spider house in Austin, … well, that’s all I can think of right now, but I’m sure there’s more, right?
and I’m not sure why it should be a *library* venture if the purpose is to provide coffee, free wifi, and non-circulating magazines.
man, i wish i still lived in austin!
We love the Friday night movies, which are still going well. Tonight Thomas Ford is showing Solas, a Spanish film with a bit of magical realism mixed in with grit. We’ll set up the coffee machine in the meeting room and pop some corn. If you are in the neighborhood, drop by at 7 p.m.
Thank you, Aaron. It is still popular.
Aaron, I once passed a closed NYC coffee shop where someone was sitting on the sidewalk with his laptop. I suspect that he was connecting to the wireless network. (Why else would you SIT on a NYC sidewalk?) So it could be interesting to have libraries leave their wifi on at night in order to see if anyone accesses it. (I’m assuming there would be a way of tracking that.) There could be untapped market. Then use that data to show that people would use the library at night and not just sit on the sidewalk.