There has been a digital ton of news flying around the past week or so regarding devices, content, law suits, and new reader software. There have also been some very interesting stories about some major partnerships being struck between firms such as Follett and Blackboard.

Most of those individual stories could have led to a posting here on my blog. However, I'm taking a different path this week.

I want to take a few minutes and talk about how to properly serve a marketplace. A very wise man once told me that the business of staying in business is very simple. I will not attempt to recreate his exact words as I would surely embarrass myself. However, I'm confident I can retell the main steps:

Get to know the market you want to serve. 

Provide that market with an exceptional level of service at a reasonable price.

Listen for the things that are so important to your market that they will pay for them.

Remember that profit is the desired result of this relationship, not the point of the relationship.

If you does these things, the market will provide you with enough funding to continue to serve them.

Ok, now I'm going to call out The Barnes & Noble Library Services Program. It appears that these folks have never heard, or at least don't follow, the words mentioned above. I encountered the B&N LSP at ALA in June of this year. Based on the literature available and on various conversations with booth staff, it appears B&N LSP doesn't actually provide any LSP. 

They do not provide MARC records.

They do not provide shelf-ready processing.

They do not provide collection development consultation.

They do not provide age and reading levels.

I'll just stop there and rest on the fact that this program has not, in any way, been designed with libraries, librarians, or library patrons in mind.

It is very rare for me to comment on a specific firm or a specific set of services. However, this disconnect between what libraries want and need and what B&N is providing is so large that I had to say something. OK, I feel better.

If you are with B&N, jump in and let me know what's what.

Whoever you are and whatever market you are serving, please make sure that your focus is on SERVING and not on anything else. As I tried to indicate above, if your focus is on serving the money will take care of itself.