Library Express Bookstore: buy or borrow!

Scranton, Pennsylvania is well known as the Electric City. According to Google, it is known for its Steamtown National Historic Site. Some may know it from their Electric City Trolley Museum which has vintage trolleys. Others may only know Scranton from the US adaptation of the television series, The Office, which is set at a fictional paper company in Scranton. Or perhaps people may know Scranton just because of the colleges that are located there.

Head down to Scranton for a day or a weekend trip, and stop by the Marketplace at Steamtown where you may find whatever you need. As stated on the Marketplace at Steamtown’s website it is the “home to lifestyle services, professional offices, retail shops, and entertainment.” The Marketplace at Steamtown has many different stores for just about anyone. If you need to do some errands you may find what you need there. If you want to go to the gym after work, you can stop by Crunch Fitness. If you are a book lover who happens to be taking a trip to Scranton, be sure to stop by the Marketplace at Steamtown where they have a bookstore known as Library Express. This unique place is not only a bookstore, but it also functions as a branch of the Lackawanna County Library System. Much like a regular public library, Library Express will loan books to the members of its community. However, Library Express also allows you to go in and wander around so that you can buy yourself a new or used book as you would do at a regular bookstore.

Streetside view of the entrance of the Marketplace at Steamtown. Map courtesy of Google Maps.

Library Express is located on the Second Floor of the Marketplace at Steamtown. Its storefront is paneled with oak, and it has large windows that have decorations that match the seasons. As seen in the picture below, the window display matches the current autumn season matching people’s love of fall foliage. When the bookstore is open its doors always remain wide open which allows anyone to stroll in. This provides a sense of feeling welcomed and may encourage people to enter the bookstore. Since Scranton has several universities, Library Express is very useful for college students. They can go to the bookstore and either buy the books that they need for school, or they could possibly just borrow them and give them back once they are done with them. Right next door is Lackawanna’s Dress for Success, a second-hand clothing store that all women to feel empowered by providing them with professional attire that allows them to thrive at work. There is also a little food court that has food that ranges from Auntie Anne’s Pretzels to Ruano’s Pizza & Pasta to Amori Sushi. So take a stroll inside the Marketplace at Steamtown, where you can have some lunch, and then go grab yourself the book you have been wanting to read. Plus if you happen to also like The Office then you can stop to check out the Scranton Welcome sign that is seen during the opening credits of the television series.

In Tim Cresswell’s “Defining Place” he talks a lot about what a place can be, whether it is a specific location, locale, or a sense of place. There are many things that are considered places such as your bedroom, a garden, a gym, Scranton, Marketplace at Steamtown, Electric City Aquarium & Reptile Den, etc. As Cresswell would say what makes these all considered places is that “they are spaces which people have made meaningful” (7), and that is what these places are to people. These places including Library Express provide people with what they may need or want. Library Express is a place that is meaningful to bookworms who cannot help but stop by and buy a new or used book. It is also a meaningful place for college students to stop by and possibly borrow a book if they do not wish to buy it since they already spend a lot of money just to go to their university.

According to the 2020 Census Bureau, the city of Scranton was predominately White (71.3%), the second highest demographic was Hispanic (9.51%), the third was Black or African American (5.39%), then following was Asian (5.07%). With three more demographics: Multiracial (Hispanic) at 3.17%, Multiracial (Non-Hispanic) at 3%, and Other (Hispanic) at 2.01%.

The age of the population is approximately 33% 65 years old or older and 15% at the age of 25 or younger. However, in the neighborhood that Library Express is in, about 35% of households whose incomes are less than $15K in a year.

In Laura J. Miller’s Reluctant Capitalists Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption, she mentions how the right kind of businesses are “nourished by its vital connections to a locality” and that they “can rise above profit considerations to provide community service as well as customer service” (122). This is exactly what Library Express does. The Library Express being a branch of a public library and bookstore allows it to provide not only for the community but also for a regular customer who may not be part of its neighborhood community.

Sources: