Introduction

Although many have consigned brick and mortar bookstores to the rubbish pile of history, it is clear that the days of the bookstore are not quite over and that perhaps much life is left in them yet. Australian booksellers, for example, have certainly found a place for themselves (Li, 2010). The same holds true for Canadian bookstores (Williams, 2014), independent bookstores (or indies) in the United States (Rosen, 2014), as well as those located in Singapore (Luyt and Heok, 2015). The good use of new technologies may play a role in their survival.

Even a cursory examination suggests that independent bookstores in Singapore are avid users of social media. Some examples of popular Facebook pages are that of independent bookstore BooksActually, with more than 31,000 likes; Woods in the Books, another indie, which considers itself more of a picture bookshop, with a little over 5,700 likes; and Basheer Graphic Books, which has over 52,000 likes.

This presence on social media, when taken at face value, may come off simply as businesses and institutions trying to leverage social media to broaden their reach, but a closer examination uncovers a very interesting phenomenon that is yet to be explored. Can the square peg that is the printed book fit itself into the round hole of cyberspace? Or, more specifically, can social media play a vital role in the resuscitation of an allegedly dying print culture? This study attempts not just to answer these questions, but also to excavate more of what this phenomenon may reveal. Given time and resource constraints, however, this study examines only the Facebook use of one of these stores, BooksActually.

It is hoped that the results can benefit both other independence bookstores, but also libraries and librarians, seeking to incorporate social media into their operations.