The latest bookstore casualty, Borders, filed for bankruptcy in February. It closed its doors to the public in September after laying off more than 10,000 employees. The decision was tough. A proposed merger with Barnes & Noble is still in the talking stage. Books-A-Million on Springhurst also recently closed its doors. This raises a new question. Are bookstores closing because of modern technology? Unlike Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Borders didn’t carry any type of electronic book reader. “Borders never came out with an E-reader like Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Barnes & Noble has the Nook, and Amazon has the Kindle,” said Ms. Charlotte Miller, Trinity’s librarian. “It was surprising to hear about Borders closing down. Borders may not have been my favorite bookstore, yet it was a nice place to visit,” senior Louis Corrons said. Others think that Borders closing wasn’t just because of their lack of keeping up with modern technology, but rather the crashing economy. “I think it just shows how bad the economy really is. You would expect little private stores to shut down, but not something as big as Borders,” sophomore Braden Lauer said. Books-A-Million also shut its doors unexpectedly at one of their locations in Springhurst. The store is to be taken over by Old Navy soon. Although their Springhurst location is no longer open, the store on Breckinridge Lane still has its doors open. They also have built new stores in Ohio and in the Green Tree Mall located in Indiana. An associate at the Breckinridge Lane Books-A-Million, who did not want to be identified, said, “We’ve had lots of customers since the closing of our other location. The reason why our other location was closed was because it was a low-volume store. Old Navy bought up the lease and was moved from the Summit and into our old Springhurst location. We have since opened stores in Clarksville and bought some of Borders’ lots up in Ohio.” Does a connection exist between bookstores closing and library use? Will there be more library patrons or will people convert to electronic readers. “I think I’ve seen more people come in,” Miller said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with E-readers, but we have more kids requesting books than ever before.” Miller thinks that use of E-readers and ordering books online will increase. “I think that everything will eventually be on your cell phone or electronic source,” she said. “I think people will still want books, but Borders closed because of Amazon and ordering books online.” As for libraries carrying E-books anytime soon, turns out they are already in demand. “You can check out E-books now from libraries,” Miller said. “But it’s not all that easy to do because they don’t have all of the information that libraries have.”