The development of our app in Padova’s IBS bookstore is as stimulating a process as it is demanding. One of the principal issues which we are trying to solve is how to favour independent book browsing in the bookshop.
First of all, it is worthwhile to draw a comparison between bookshop and library. Different requirements and ends translate into to very distinct approaches. A library classifies its books in “rigid” categories, therefore giving them a “fixed” location. Compared to bookshops, libraries tipically have a larger amount and a wider variety of books, which have been accumulated over the course of decades and centuries. Most of all, libraries stock these books for a longer period of time and therefore that these be “returned” is hugely important to them. However, on the short term, libraries obtain a smaller number of books and can afford to spare more time for each item (naturally, we imagine that the available space and resources are comparable). Lastly, libraries do not feel any pressure to display a book in the most “appealing” position for their customers.
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