The Bookseller reports that a University Bookshop is to close in Belfast

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/belfast-university-bookshop-close.html

Tim Smyth, manager of the bookshop, said the board of the university-owned bookshop took the decision to close before the shop became unprofitable, which he expected would be next year. He said: “We have always been above the line but next year we will fall below the line. I don’t know how we (independent booksellers) can do it anymore. Certainly the academic model has reached a tipping point now, it is unsustainable.

“We didn’t want to be in a position where we had to limit the range we supply and damage our reputation, which is important to us.”

Maybe this is more direct than claiming that there is a positive case for not having a bookshop on a modern university retail experience such as Exeter is about to relaunch when the building is completed.

It would be a shame to launch a new site only to close within a few years. But I don't think the case for a campus without a bookshop has been filly explored. I still don't understand why a library is different. Why bricks? actually why have a campus at all? Yet building continues. What is "Science 2.0" ? Will it need a new set of buildings jumping the city over the motorway and into the countryside?