Category Archives: Birmingham

Today is Buy Indie Day!

I used to think that days like today were nothing more than some marketing gimmick conjured up by various trade associations, but today is different. “Buying local” seems to be the savior we’ve been looking for all this time. Which financial institutions are surviving the financial crisis the best? Local ones. Where is the best place to buy food, ensuring no crazy chemicals or pests have been involved? Locally. You want to support your community and keep your neighbors employed? Buy local.

It’s amazing isn’t it?

There is an official IndieBound.org Buy Indie FaceBook page and even a “local indie store finder” page. So get out, buy a book, have some fun and buy local.

Jonathan Benton Going Out of Business

I just read over on Gasp! that Mountain Brook bookseller Jonathan Benton’s is going out of business. March 31st will be the last day the doors are open. The owners and operators blamed all the online book sites and such. The Jonathan Benton site has been down for months, but this is such a shame. It’ll be sad to see that empty space in the Mountain Brook Village shopping Center.

The number of non-mega-chain stores is dwindling here in Birmingham…

Virtual Tours of Birmingham Libraries

birmingham_library_tours

I just noticed this button at the bottom of the Birmingham Public Library site, which links to a webpage full of mini-video tours of the central downtown branch and five of the Birmingham branches.It’s powered by Alabama360.com, so you have the ability to zoom, pause, pan and tilt.

Some of the older tours are powered by MapWing which pinpoints still images rather than allowing you to pan through a panoramic shot.

The Linn Henley Research Library tours don’t do the murals justice. It’s just one of those things best seen in person.