The news of the potential sale of Black Oak Books in Berkeley - my local and favorite bookstore - got me thinking about the similarities of public libraries, newspapers, and independent bookstores.  It is clear to me that all of these need to emphasize local community features and services if they are to survive, unless they have a clear national presence (e.g., like Powell's, in Portland, which has a reasonable online business as well as a presumably healthy bricks and mortar presence).  

We are certainly on the verge of an era where most people locate books of interest through services like Amazon's, or Google's Book Search, where they can often browse through the book before making a determination of its value to them.  Both of these services offer multiple consumption options, including PDF download from Google for public domain works, purchasing for both in-print and used works (particularly through Amazon's bookseller network), and availability through local libraries (particularly through Google, and in the U.S., offered via OCLC's WorldCat service).

One of the nice things about WorldCat is that you can pick your preferred local libraries.  Google simply redirects users to a WorldCat interface, so if you have established your library preferences with them, then you get a personalized display of which of your preferred libraries have the work in question. 

Wouldn't it be nice if you could do the same with independent bookstores?  I'd love to be able to register my preferred bookstores in a centralized registry (could this maybe be AbeBooks or something like it?), and then have Google offer me a routing, as one of their services, to this registry.  The registry would then recognize my registration credentials, and offer me services from my preferred local bookstores: e.g., perhaps they have a copy in stock, or I'm willing to wait for them to order me a copy; perhaps they might even be able to do print on demand for me.  Regardless, it seems like this would do something to boost the fortunes of local bookstores, even if in a small way.  

Btw, I hope to do a podcast with Black Oak Books in the near future, so stay tuned for that!