In the final part of a four-part series focusing on independent booksellers, Daniel Johns, the owner of University Bookseller in Plymouth, tells us how he has used his IT knowledge to enhance the family business
guardian.co.uk,
Daniel Johns, owner of the University Bookseller, and independent bookstore, in Plymouth, Devon. Photograph: Jim Wileman
"University Bookseller is one of three bookshops owned by my family. The Plymouth store was the first, opened by my father in 1974; there are photos of me riding around the shop on a tricycle when I was four. Although I did a degree in computers and networks, I'd work shifts, or even paint the shop, to earn money during the holidays. I was always involved and my father asked for my opinion. After I'd graduated, bookselling was going in a digital direction. I helped out more with the business and, eight years ago, I came full circle and started running the shop.
I knew how I wanted the shop to look, but it took about two years to get across the message I wanted it to portray. The shop is called University Bookseller, but we're independent of the university. It's a friendly shop with knowledgeable staff, who know what they're talking about on textbooks and fiction.
The people who work here are the lifeblood of the shop; we encourage them to read and write reviews, even if they think a book is rubbish, and have a rule that you must always have five books to recommend. When new students turn up, they've probably never been into an academic bookshop before. It can seem scary, so we try to put them at ease by being as friendly as possible. We're not just here for textbooks – the students can talk to us about other literature, too.
For an independent shop, we've always been up with modern technologies; my father was one of the first people to use tele-ordering. I see technology as a way of easing the burden, so you have more thinking space. But new technology in the shop has to be efficient – I don't believe in technology for technology's sake.
You have to have an online presence, even if it's just to say where you are, because people will Google you – Googling has become human nature. But getting online costs money and some independent shops don't have the operating capital to do it.
Full piece at The Guardian.
I knew how I wanted the shop to look, but it took about two years to get across the message I wanted it to portray. The shop is called University Bookseller, but we're independent of the university. It's a friendly shop with knowledgeable staff, who know what they're talking about on textbooks and fiction.
The people who work here are the lifeblood of the shop; we encourage them to read and write reviews, even if they think a book is rubbish, and have a rule that you must always have five books to recommend. When new students turn up, they've probably never been into an academic bookshop before. It can seem scary, so we try to put them at ease by being as friendly as possible. We're not just here for textbooks – the students can talk to us about other literature, too.
For an independent shop, we've always been up with modern technologies; my father was one of the first people to use tele-ordering. I see technology as a way of easing the burden, so you have more thinking space. But new technology in the shop has to be efficient – I don't believe in technology for technology's sake.
You have to have an online presence, even if it's just to say where you are, because people will Google you – Googling has become human nature. But getting online costs money and some independent shops don't have the operating capital to do it.
Full piece at The Guardian.
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