Books and coffee – a winning combination

Have you noticed the current fashion of including coffee drinking in bookshops?

Many larger book stores have their own in-house coffee shop for visitors to stop and have a caffeine fix, while thinking about purchasing a book or two.

Other coffee shops offer browsers a free cuppa as they wander around.

However, there has now been a move at the Toronto Reference Library, to take the combination of coffee and books into libraries too.

As reported in the Toronto Star, this is the first ‘full-blown storefront coffee shop in a public library’ in the city.

It seems like a winning solution for all involved.

Libraries have a way of making some income from their lending of free books.

Balzac Coffee also makes some income through sales and offers its customers various beverages and a place to read a library book or two, or to watch the world go by.

The Toronto library is certainly canny and entrepreneurial in its plans to make a little extra.

It also rents out some of its events space, a gift shop and also the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon.

During the current economic climate of spending cuts, there have been rumours in various countries of spending cuts hitting public libraries hard.

This seems to offer a workable and practicable solution, to keep libraries going with a little extra income.

Perhaps the coffee shop will help to save the day, so that additional resources are available to the public who want to make the most of their local lending library.

Photo: Nick Webb