In the one month since reopening on Apr. 1, the Takeo City Library in Saga Prefecture topped 100,000 visitors. Management of the new facility has been contracted to Culture Convenience Club (CCC), the company that runs the CD/DVD rental chain Tsutaya. “I didn’t expect to reach this target so quickly. We plan to survey users in late June and make improvements,” said Mayor Keisuke Hiwatashi.
Image source: 武雄市役所 Facebook
The new library has a Starbucks Coffee and a Tsutaya Book Store inside, allowing patrons to enjoy coffee and purchase books, as well as browse library materials. There is also a CD and DVD rental section in the library. CCC has not released sales figures for coffee and books, but a company official in charge of the library project said they “appear to be doing rather well”. The library has 13,909 registered users, 46.9% of whom live outside of Takeo. 95.6% of the library’s users have opted to use the T Point Card which gives them three points (=¥3) for each book borrowed. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, May 2.
Official website: http://www.epochal.city.takeo.lg.jp/winj/opac/top.do
