Library Update
NOTE: This was an audio yap first so you can listen to it or read the transcription below:
Hi, hello, hello everybody!
This is Bon, and I figured it would be great if I update you guys on what’s going on with the library and the whole progress behind the scenes.
We’ve been quiet, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s going on. A bunch of things are happening behind the scenes. It’s just that we’ve been so busy and so swamped. There are just so many things.
But at the same time, since we’re not really a very formal "business" or something, and we’re more like a community, I figured: why not just yap about it and tell it to the world?
And I am very much a yapper, so I prefer to just yap it all out.
I’m going to have to transcribe this later too, so that if you prefer to read it, you can just go ahead and read it.
Overall, we are still very much alive. A lot of things are going on behind the scenes. It’s just that we don’t post much.
But I’ve been very bad at posting anyway, so I think if you’ve been following us for a while, you’d probably be like, “Well, that figured.”
But if you have already pre-registered, I’m so glad that you have. I’ve already seen many of you who have pre-registered; it shows that there is enough interest in waiting for the library to open and things like that.
I’m so, so, so, so, so excited to share what the library is, you guys.
First Up: Construction
If you’ve been passing by our place or our location up there, you might notice that some days, it’s open.
But do not go there (yet), because it is currently under construction.
The architect and interior designer that I got are as passionate as me when it comes to the whole progress. So, the whole design part, the planning, the ergonomics, the overall vibe, the coziness, the position of the seats, the books, and everything else are very much well thought of.
It is a very tiny space though, mind you. It’s not even 70 square meters. It’s less than that.
So if you’ve been to the bookstore or the lounge before, you’ve probably noticed how small it is. We just merged them together. That’s what we did. We tore down the wall in between and had some renovations there.
It’s been happening.
I can’t say yet when it’s going to be done because I don’t want to rush the whole stuff that’s going on. So I cannot give you a valid, solid opening date yet.
That means I have nothing to share about that yet.
Is it going to be in July? August? September? I don’t know. Even I don’t know. So I can’t really tell you guys yet.
But it’s been going.
I want to share a little bit about the construction... I mean, the whole interior design part.
I have taken note of the suggestions that you guys told me before while the lounge was going on, as well as the suggestions from the pre-opening survey. If you filled that out, thank you. I have read every single one of them and taken note of what you guys wanted.
So yes, there are going to be desks, of course, for people who prefer to have a table and a chair. Back then, it was more of a make-do setup, right? It was not really an actual study desk kind of vibe.
But this one is going to be looking like a study desk vibe.
You know how those computer shops back then had those cubicle setups? If you know that computer shops existed back then. It’s kind of like that, but I’m so excited to decorate it all.
I’m thinking one place is going to look like a shounen section, one section is going to look like a shoujo section, and things like that. Those are just ideas though, so maybe it’s not going to look exactly like that, et cetera, et cetera.
But I feel like I just want it to be a little zone where you can go and hang out like it’s your room, kind of vibe.
So we have that.
Reading Pods and Cozy Seating
We also have the main seating area, and those are pods.
You know how there are bunk bed kind of seating? There’s an upper deck and then a lower deck, where you have a semi-private space for yourself to read.
I know that back then, when the lounge was going on, if you were just alone or you were with a friend, it was kind of awkward to read if you could see other people reading as well.
But this time, I made sure that introverts are first.
It’s like: introvert first.
So I’m expecting people to be reading alone, by themselves. Even if you’re with a friend or with a partner, you’re still technically reading alone.
So yes, those pods are kind of semi-private. You can have your own privacy when it comes to reading your books, whichever book you’re going to read.
Well, I’m still going to see you. It’s not going to be so covered that it’s super private.
No. No.
Of course, I would still see you.
But we have that.
We also have space for people, but I am not expecting a lot of people. At most, the library can probably only seat fewer than 20 people.
So if you’re thinking of grabbing a bunch of friends--if you have a bunch of friends and that bunch is more than 20--yeah, no.
It’s basically a very, very (tiny space).
Even though I had to sacrifice seating space for the sake of coziness, it’s fine because I want more space for books, more space for being cozy, and such.
So yes, that’s the overall thing going on with the construction stuff.
It’s still a very long road. Once it starts looking kind of dapper, I’m going to take some photos and show you guys. But right now, I don’t really have anything to show yet other than the ideas that I have in mind.
The Catalog and Database Are Still Active
The catalog and database are still very much active.
If you’re visiting our website at tankobonbon.com, you can most definitely still see a bunch of new books being added every day, or from time to time.
We have very amazing, hardworking database volunteers who have been adding books and updating them, making sure that they are there--especially if you’re still collecting.
Although you can no longer buy books through us, you can still browse on our website and click from there if you want to buy them from other bookstores.
So yes, please continue collecting manga and light novels as you’ve been doing if you’re a collector.
I will try my very best to make sure that the catalog is on top of everything because the library is mainly going to depend on that catalog. So I will, of course, very much need to update the whole catalog stuff.
The Library System
Other than that, I’m also in the process of the whole library system.
This is the part that I’m so excited to share.
When I explain this to people, they’re just dumbfounded. They’re like, “What?” Kind of like that reaction.
But also at the same time, it’s like “What?” with a positive connotation.
So, so, so, so, so. It’s like this.
The library is going to act like how an arcade works.
I am a big arcade person. One of my hobbies is basically just staying in an arcade, playing Wangan, playing bowling, playing this and that. I’m a big arcade person, basically.
So I figured: you know what, who wants to read anyway?
In this economy? In this digital age? I know. I know that curse.
So to make sure that people are encouraged to read--you’ve probably read this on the pre-registration page. If you haven’t pre-registered yet, you may go ahead and do so. It’s at tankobonbon.com/pages/pre-register--I think that’s correct.
On the pre-registration page up, it says stuff like "quests", "library cards", "tiers", "workshops", and this and that.
And you’re probably like, “What? What is going on?”
So I’m going to explain that a little bit in-depth, but not so deep that you’re going to be confused. I’ll try my best.
Essentially, it’s like merging arcades and gacha games.
How the Library Card Works
When you enter the library, I recommend having a library card with you so that you can easily use your information or your profile to track your progress when it comes to reading.
But it’s not like a Goodreads kind of account. No.
You know how in arcades, you can top up credits there so you can use them for your next visit?
Essentially, the library card works like that.
You can top up hours so that even if you have no money with you, but you have your phone, your wallet where your library card lives, or probably your pocket, then you can just show up at the library, show us your library card, and as long as it has credits inside your library card, you can access the library.
For example, if you have 10 hours on your card, then feel free to stay 10 hours--if.. we’re... open for 10 hours.
And if you forgot your library card, you can go ahead and use your phone, specifically your digital library card that lives on your account.
As long as you’re logged into the website, you’ll be able to access it.
That part (the digital library card) can’t be done yet, of course, because we’re still closed. But once we have that, you can just show it to us.
If you were a customer of the bookstore back then, you had profiles before. You had barcodes that you could even access through Apple Wallet and such.
So it’s essentially the same thing, where you can show us your account at the counter, we will verify you, and then you can come in.
There are a bunch more details that I’m just not saying yet, because of course, there’s a bunch of jabber and all the fine print. But essentially, that’s how it works.
Then you just come inside the library and go ahead and read.
Almost 5,000 Books
There are almost 5,000 books there that you can read.
That is five times more than what the lounge had before.
So if you visited the lounge back then and saw that wall of books, that was just around 1,000 books.
Now imagine five times that.
There’s just a lot.
This is the largest inventory that Tankobonbon has had--even more than what we had during book fairs, or as on-hand stock, and such and such.
I just have that many books.
Don’t worry, because it’s going to keep growing. There are going to be a lot more books going forward because I am a collector first and foremost more than anything.
So I’ll try my best to keep up with what is out there because I want to collect them too.
Book Elections
But at the same time, here’s the fun part: the library is also going to have book elections.
There’s going to be some democracy going on in the library.
I’m not going to go in-depth on what that means yet, but there are elections inside the library.
Essentially, the core part is that you can elect books that you cannot see in the library because they’re not there.
You’re going to elect them, and people will vote for them, et cetera, et cetera.
And you know, it feels great, right? When you have a book in your hands and you’re like, “I’m one of the people who stocked this here.”
For me, I’d love that.
So hopefully, you’d enjoy that too.
But the full details and all that are going to be shared once we’re open, of course. Right now, not yet.
So yes, that’s that.
Gamification, Quests, and Reading Progress
I’m also so excited for the whole gamification of the library, which is what I call it.
The arcade aspect of the library is where you can read books, but at the same time, gain something from it.
So if you’ve read a certain type of book or a certain collection of books, then you can gain something from it.
And those gains can turn into something else that I’m keeping a secret for now.
But yes, that’s how it works.
I would very much encourage you, even if you only visit twice a year or something, to have a library card because it would save your progress and all that.
So yes. Super exciting, super exciting stuff.
And also, there have been meetings back and forth with the whole system, with the paperwork, and a bunch of the stuff needed to make the library work.
Reminder: We Are No Longer a Bookstore
Apart from that, of course, this is just a reminder that we are no longer a bookstore.
Nope.
We are not, not, not, not, not selling books anymore.
If you wish to purchase books, you can visit the website and buy books from the external bookstores that we have shared.
We don’t get any commissions whatsoever from those.
So yes, just go ahead.
Sometimes, if you prefer to use our website to look for a specific book--because if you’re looking for some shoujo or some BL, then you can go ahead and use the website for that--then you can select the external bookstore links if you want to purchase from them.
So that is the overall concept for that one.
If you are going to use the website, there’s also the release calendar that you can follow for which books are going to be released in the next couple of months.
That is being updated as much as possible by our volunteers.
We also have our release trackers.
For example, if you are a collector and you wish to track the books that you have pre-ordered, or check when the next volume is going to come out, you can also use our kind of side quest of a website, which is release.tankobonbon.com.
So you could go ahead and use that one as well.
And then there’s a bunch more that I am not going to share yet, but it’s kind of exciting.
Collectible Library Cards
Oh yeah, I forgot.
One of the major fun things that I wanted to share is that you can have more than one library card. Definitely.
The concept of the library card is much like photocards, where you can collect them.
I mean, I’m not going to force you to collect a bunch of library cards, right?
But you can.
You can collect library cards from various artists because I have commissioned a bunch of artworks from different local and Japanese artists for the library card artwork.
You know how those train cards in Japan are very nice-looking? You can have stickers on top of them, right? And a bunch of other countries have cards like that too.
So we are kind of adapting that kind of design, where the artwork is on the front and the backside has the library card details.
You can support your favorite artists and choose which artwork you really want to collect through those library cards.
But if you don’t prefer that, and instead want to use them as digital library cards, you can also do that.
You can just have one physical library card and have a bunch of digital library card artworks.
That’s definitely a go.
And there are a bunch, a bunch, a bunch more stuff that I can’t wait to share overall.
But as you have heard, it’s a bunch of stuff, right?
So I myself can’t just say, “Okay, we’re going to be ready next month,” or whatever, because with a bunch of things going on behind the scenes, it will take time.
Thank you for listening~
Thank you so much for listening to the overall update.
If you have some questions--oh yeah, by the way, I have received a bunch of comments while you were pre-registering.
So if you have questions while you are pre-registering, you can drop those comments on the form, as I mentioned there.
But if you don’t prefer that, you can also send an email straight to my inbox at library@tankobonbon.com.
Even though I have a bunch of emails waiting for me to answer, just send it there and I’ll be glad to read them once I can.
So yes, that is the overall update.
It’s kind of a long one, but also kind of nothing at the same time.
So yeah, that’s it. Thanks so much! ♡