Small Small Bookshop in Newspapers and Magazines

Apart from the information on the bookstore's website, we continued to search for reports about the bookstore from various online magazines and blogs. Everyone recorded the websites, magazines, blogs, periodicals information so that we could use it later. During the process of collecting data, we discovered a great deal of blogs, newspapers and magazines discussing the bookstore!

Designing Interview Questions for the Staff at the Bookstore

This time, we were designing questions to ask the staff who work at the book store. Everyone thought about topics from four different areas – their personal lives, the running of the store, activities and associations, and finally the future plans for the store. As before, everyone comes up with a questionnaire, then later we sort the wheat from the chaff and choose the questions we want. We hope to use this interview to learn more about the staff at the bookstore, and their passions and hopes for the store.

Designing Interview Questions for the Local Community

There are many news reports about the bookstore, but how much do the local community really know about this store? What are the reading habits of this community? To find out the answers to these questions, we had to design a questionnaire about the habits and to promote the bookstore. We also hoped to use this questionnaire to let the local community know that Yonghe has a wonderful little independent bookstore.

Small Small Bookshop Talk by Lee Min Yong

On the evening of October 12, 2012, we attended a talk at the bookstore called "On the corner, we come across a bookstore". Through this talk, we learned about bookstores in many different countries. Some bookstores have huge floor to ceiling windows, others are so small that the door can only half open in order to accommodate the extra space for books! After listening to the talk, we finally understood that a bookstore is like a person. It has it's own characteristics and it's own life.

Collecting Data at the Library

On the morning of October 13th, 2012, we took all the information that we had collected about the bookstore the the Central Zhonghe Library to organize the data. With the help of the librarian, we soon found all the information that we needed, printed it out and took it back to school. During the process of looking for information, we discovered that not every article entitled "Small Small Bookstore" was actually talking about the bookstore, so we had to be very careful to check first!

Community Reading Habits Questionairre

After finishing the data collection at the library, we stayed by the Number Four Park and two MRT stations to do our questionaires. With two people in each team, we began stopping people on the street to give them our questionairre. During this process, we discovered that a great number of people had never heard of the bookstore so we took this opportunity to tell them all about it! When we were interviewing people on the street, there was even a TV news crew came to interview us! This was a really special experience for us, and it also helped us to build up courage talking to strangers.

Small Small Bookshop Staff Interviews

On October 17th, 2012, we arranged interviews with two members of the bookstore's staff. Yawen was the first to be interviewed, and because this was our first formal interview we were all very nervous. After we finished interviewing Ya Wen, our teacher reminded us what we need to look out for to make the next interview better. After talking with our teachers, we were much less nervous and our interaction with Xiao Yu was much better. These interviews allowed us to learn that no matter what we are doing, full preparation is necessary. If we are fully prepared, we will be less nervous and perform better.

Sappho Liu Interview

On the afternoon of October 24th, 2012, we had our first official meeting with the owner of Small Small Bookshop, Sappho Liu. During the interview process, we learned a lot about Sappho's feelings for books and the hardships of opening a bookstore. To open a bookstore, you don't only need to have money, you also need to have a lot of passion in order keep it running. From the store's style, decoration, operation style, etc. everything needs to be carefully evaluated. This interview also let us know that once you have set your sights on something, you should push forward and never give up.

Book Release Party

By attending this book release party, we were able to learn more about the publishing world. On October 26th, 2012, we attended a book release for the first time. We learned that each publisher has it's own style and that there is a big difference between small publishers and the big names that we usually see. Through this event, we also noticed a lot of books that we wouldn't normally have done. Finally, we also learned about all the hard work that goes into getting a book published.

Source : Yu-Tsai Bookworms