Shelf Awareness has the scoop about a big change at Bellingham bookstore Village Books:

Chuck and Dee Robinson, founders and owners of Village Books and Paper Dreams, Bellingham and Lynden, Wash., are selling the stores to Kelly Evert, Paul Hanson and Sarah Hutton, the store's senior management team, who have been handling most day-to-day operations for the past several years. The sale is effective January 1.

Evert and Hanson previously worked at Eagle Harbor Book Company. There will be some farewell receptions for the Robinsons at Village Books locations the first week of February.

This is momentous news — during the post-Borders-and-B&N decline of independent bookselling, the Robinsons provided a new model for independent bookstores. And their time as a beacon for indie bookstores has not been forgotten; if you ever attend a bookselling get-together, you'll find that Chuck and Dee are, rightfully, treated like royalty. They've earned the right to step aside, and to pass Village Books on to people who understand the importance of what the Robinsons have built.