Skokie business owner Robert Katzman has the challenge of convincing people that a store called the Magazine Museum is still relevant. In a digital world where iPads and laptops rule, is there room for anything so archaic as the printed word?

Katzman has turned to a group of DePaul University students for help breathing new life into the store by developing a 21st Century marketing plan for 20th Century nostalgia.

“I’m like an antique,” Katzman said. “You don’t meet anybody doing what I do anymore.”

Nine DePaul students from an undergraduate entrepreneurship class have started meeting with Katzman, and over the next six weeks they will study his storefront business at 4906 Oakton St. and help him find ways to make the leap into the digital age, said the group’s project manager, Anna Chismorie.

Chismorie, 21, said it’s something of a challenge for students her age to find the digital hook for something so … old fashioned.

“To have this kind of opportunity is great,” she said. “Especially for us because we’re not used to these kinds of stores.”

“I think the biggest problem is that many of us think they don’t exist anymore, but they still do,” added the student. “That’s our biggest problem — that the generation these days, have technology.

“What do we need magazines for?” said the college student. “We can go on our iPad and go online. I think that’s what we need to figure out. How do we find those target markets and how can we nail them down and further his store and his products?”

Katzman has owned and operated the Magazine Museum for more than 30 years. His inventory includes 140,000 old magazines — some dating as far back as 1576. He also has thousands of classic movie posters, and even flags of the world.

“The problem is — how does anybody communicate such an arcane thing?” he said. “These students are trying to awake the metropolitan area to the fact I exist.”

Chismorie said the group recently established a Twitter website for the Magazine Museum. He has more than 30 followers — a start.

“We tried to find certain markets within Twitter that would be interested in antique magazines all that kind of stuff associated with Bob’s store,” Chismorie explained.

Chismorie also said the students will launch the business on other social media sites, among other things.

“We’re just giving Bob certain elements and solutions of what he can do to further his store,” she said. “As of right now, we’re still developing everything trying to figure out what we can possibly do with this business.”

One thing the students may not want to tackle is Katzman’s system for finding specific magazines in the stacks in his store. He said he doesn’t have an inventory database but instead just knows where everything is. He said he can find any magazine within minutes.

“I operate on stream of consciousness,” he said. “It’s possible. People don’t realize what they’re capable of.”

Chismorie, 21, said her class is up to the unique challenges presented by the Magazine Museum.

She said forty percent of the student’s grade in the class will be based on their work at the Magazine Museum, and said that at the end of the project they will present their findings to Katzman and their professor.

“These people are putting their businesses in our hands and we are going to try to act as their consultants and further their businesses,” she said. “We’re not dealing with the fake business world here. We’re dealing with the real business world.”