iHCPL Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online Exercise 1

Find and report on your blog the three booksellers that are closest to your branch or facility. Do they have an online presence? If they do, please describe it in twenty-five words or less on your blog.

I first went to my LibraryThing local feature and entered the ZIP code for the Administrative Offices. Here's the listing I got:
Plenty of libraries and bookstore in the neighborhood, but the only one with a picture on the LibraryThing site was the West University Branch of the Harris County Public Library. On the Upcoming events column only Murder By The Book and the Brazos Bookstore listed their events.
I looked for a websites for the three closest stores using Google. Half Price Books had a generic site for the chain with a mashup Google map and a Search Books feature that's a click through to Amazon.

Half Price Books- Rice Village 2537 University Blvd. (listed variously as 2.1 and 2.2 miles from 77054), 2537 University Blvd., Houston, TX 77005

Brazos Bookstore (2.9 miles), 2421 Bissonnet, Houston, Texas 77005 had a site with recommendations by their staff and by their customers. Each customer had a short biographical profile along with a link to the recommended title, an excellent 2.0 marketing technique. There was also a search feature for particular titles, however, it did not appear to interface with the stock at the local store.

It was much the same for the Murder By The Book (2.9 miles), 2342 Bissonnet St., Houston, TX 77005. Customer recommendations (but not last names) were given prominent placement on the site.