Meet the Digital Age book store: Fewer books, more electronics.

After being media-toured through Borders’ new “concept store” in Town Square today; after oohing over the burn-your-own-CD stations and ahhing over the book-you-own-flights computer in the travel books section; after agreeing that the mural in the children’s section is pretty cool and that the graphic-novels section is pretty mangalicious – here’s our takeaway:

It’s a pretty good bookstore.

Set to grand-open April 4-6 but softly open now, the 22,000-square-foot tome depot does several necessary things: serves a part of town direly in need of the books and events the store will bring; integrates ancillary services (music downloading, travel planning) in ways that make sense for a bookstore; and provides CityLifers with a refreshingly nearby supply of book, music and magazine shopping.

This concept store — which also has reconfigured display areas and “destination” sections (travel, cooking, wellness) geeked up with extra services — is the second of an eventual 14 such stores. (The first is in Ann Arbor, Mich.) At the music stations, you can download music, whole albums or a mix of songs, as mp3s or discs. Also ready for download: 15,000 audiobooks. At the geneology station, you can run down the particulars of your family name or your relatives, complete with access to official documents. A screen in the travel section allows you to research a destination, then book a flight. You can even buy entry-level personal electronics — GPS naviation devices, small camcorders, point-and-shoot cameras. All very snazzy; it’s the company’s way of anticipating the role of bookstores in a digital age.

And yet, as long as the future of bookstores still involves books, it can only be so evolutionary. Underneath all the cool amenities, which are cool, it’s basically another Borders, perhaps better designed but still a high-volume store in a mall, courting a large middlebrow audience. That’s mostly fine with us; middlebrow still covers a lot of fine territory. But we wonder if, like other Borderses, it will be relatively short on small and university press books, the kind of volumes not readily found in Las Vegas.

On top of that, thanks to its size (8,000 square feet smaller than the first concept store) and certain design and presentation demands, the new place will stock fewer books than normal for a Borders — an estimated 85,000-90,000 unique titles instead of the 100,000 that’s more standard, said Jill Lyon, vice president of store planning, visual presentation and construction. “Lit and mystery will go down in the mix,” she said, “but we’ll sell more ancillary titles [art, gardening and so on].” She added: “If you walk through, you certainly don’t get the idea we have a lot less.”

Perhaps; it will take us many extra-long lunch hours to determine if those 10,000 fewer titles leave the store with fewer of the surprising, peripheral finds that make bookstore meandering — past, present and future — such a joy. Clock us out, boss, we’re going to research this.

Book-shaped laptop pads abound!