Is there hope for small bookstores in a digital age?

Increasingly, consumers are ordering print books online and reading e-books delivered instantly to mobile devices and e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook.

Borders, the nation's second-largest book chain with about 500 "superstores," has delayed payments to its vendors, faces a potential bankruptcy filing and is widely expected to announce store closings soon. Barnes & Noble, the largest chain, has embarked on what it calls a "consolidation" of its 717 superstores as it pursues an increasingly digital strategy. It already has closed all of its 798 B. Dalton mall outlets. Years after the rise of such mega-chains — and the explosive growth of Amazon.com's discount book business — helped kill many small bookstores, e-books are sparking another shake-up. As measured by numbers, bookstores are in inevitable decline, says Michael Cader, founder of Publishers Lunch, a digital newsletter. At the same time, he says, some "modestly sized, locally connected independent stores have found a successful formula" for surviving in today's market.