Instead, the Library Express is a stack of metal lockers outside city hall. When patrons want a book or DVD, they order it online and pick it up from a digitally locked, glove-compartment- sized cubby a few days later. It’s a library as conceived by the Amazon.com generation.

Faced with layoffs and budget cuts, or simply looking for ways to expand their reach, libraries around the country are replacing traditional, full-service institutions with devices and approaches that may be redefining what it means to have a library.

Later this year Mesa, Ariz., plans to open a new “express” library in a strip-mall, open three days a week, with outdoor kiosks to dispense books and DVDs at all hours of the day. Palm Harbor, Fla., meanwhile, has offset the impact of reduced hours by installing glass-front vending machines that dispense DVDs and popular books.

The wave of innovation is aided by companies that have created new machines designed to help libraries save on labor. For instance, Evanced Solutions, an Indianapolis company that makes library software, this month is starting test trials of a new vending machine it plans to start selling early next year.

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For one thing, no matter how aggressively I lean on the fast-forward button on my DVR, I still end up seeing bits of Bing spots. Can’t escape them. But as far as I can tell, the ads below aren’t scheduled to appear on TV at all.

Another hint: They star Dean Cain, who is best known for his work in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” And that show went off the air in 1997.

The ads come to us courtesy of Bradley & Montgomery, the Indianapolis shop that also made the much-buzzed about “Mojave” spots for Windows Vista last year. But I don’t think the buzz translated into many happy Vista users, and I don’t know that these new spots will prompt people to rethink their browser choice.

You know what, though? I don’t care. If I used a computer that ran Windows, I would totally download IE8 just to support the ad’s director: Bobcat Goldthwait.

Many of you may have a vague memory of Bobcat as the screamy comedian from the 80s who wasn’t Sam Kinison and who appeared in a bunch of “Police Academy” movies. But he’s also the writer, director and star of “Shakes the Clown,” which is awesome and dark and truthful and also really funny. Go watch it! Or download IE8.