Academic libraries use coffee to attract users

Here’s an NPR All Things Considered audio story on how academic libraries are installing coffee bars, not only to attract students, but as a way to creatively finance resources. It’s sort of a gee-whiz story, and pretty lame for NPR, but, well, there it is anyway.

August 23, 2003 by Uncategorized 7

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7 Responses

  1. Anna says:
    August 24, 2003 at 8:38 am

    coffee
    My library has really nice plans for renovating the reference offices into a coffee house kind of setting, but there is no money for it. Besides the fact that our budget has been the same or decreased over the past twelve years, the university won’t fund something that large. We did just get approval to let the campus food service set up a coffee cart in some as-yet-unknown location in the library.

    The preservation side of me is not happy with officially sanctioned foods in the building; however, I know that people already eat in there. There aren’t very many hangouts near my campus, so it would easily make the library more popular than it already is. The question is, will it really improve the research and study habbits of our students?

    Reply
  2. Mal Y Clypse says:
    August 24, 2003 at 8:57 am

    Re:coffee
    I’ve been thinking about this trend for a while now, and I don’t think it’s really about improving anyones study habits or research skills. It’s about making the library a better place to be. It’s an attempt to draw people into the building and utilize the resources instead of just firing up a browser. I personally like the idea of being able to do my research and have a cup of coffee, and if I need any help from the reference desk it’s right there. Having another source of income from a coffee shop is also really nice. Granted, it prorbably won’t be some huge cash cow, but it might help keep some of the lower circulating materials available.

    Reply
  3. Anna says:
    August 24, 2003 at 9:26 am

    Re:coffee
    You are assuming that the revenue from the coffee shop will go to the library. Granted, a portion of it might go to the library, but probably most of it will go to the company that runs the coffee shop (Starbucks, Aramark, etc). So, the question still remains – what benefit does the library get from the coffee shop?

    Reply
  4. Anonymous Patron says:
    August 25, 2003 at 8:16 am

    So…
    Don’t let a company run the coffee shop.

    The money from that cart (besides paying the person’s wage) should go to renovating that section to make a coffee shop. You should probably axe the cart, and get some automated coffee dispensers, and a place to p ut them (some chairs a table, and some signs that say designated food/beverage place).

    Also, it’s nice to be able to tell patrons, go to the coffee shop to eat/drink. Do not do it in the stacks.

    They don’t have to leave the building, or check-out their books (they can just set them down at the coat-rack for the coffee-shop), if they’re feeling hungry/thirsty.

    — Ender, Duke_of_URL

    Reply
  5. Mal Y Clypse says:
    August 25, 2003 at 10:18 pm

    Re:coffee
    That is correct. If the library farms the operation out to another company some of the profits, probably even most of them, will go to the vendor. The advantage here is that the 3rd party vendor already has a firm grip on how to run a coffee business and should therefore have most of the kinks worked out and be more successfull. The Library could have a contract that specified a certain percentage of the profits or a set rent, which ever is higher.

    If the library decided to run it’s own operation it would see a greater return, but as an organization running a profit based endeavor is not generally in the skill sets of librarians.

    From what I researched, the most successfull situation was to contract the operation of a coffee bar out to someone with previous restuarant experience. That could even be to the University food services or a local independant vendor, not neccessarily to a Starbucks.

    Reply
  6. Anna says:
    August 25, 2003 at 10:50 pm

    Re:So…
    If only! In a university setting, at least in my experience, food service is generally controlled by one company – from the caffeteria to catered dinners. At my university in particular, our food service company has first bid options for everything. If they decide not to run our coffee bar, then we can go out and look for other companies. That is why none of the money will go to the library itself, so the coffee bar cannot be considered a source of revenue for the library.

    Reply
  7. lindy says:
    October 3, 2003 at 2:04 am

    Coffee in libraries
    My community college library is adding a coffee cart in the very near future. I am interested in any positive or negative stories. We hope it will be a positive experience for students and for us. LN

    Reply

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