More than 35 years after it first made a home in the Brown Office Building on Thayer Street, and 12 years since its last renovation, the Brown Bookstore is again undergoing University review.
"What do we want the bookstore to be? Are there ways it can be strengthened?" asked Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, who serves as the Bookstore Review Committee chair. The committee is being used to "make sure (the bookstore) is meeting the needs of the community optimally."
Huidekoper said the committee comprises a representative group of Brown community members - students, faculty members and staff.
Among those providing input to the committee is Larry Carr, the University bookstore and services director. In an e-mail to The Herald, Carr wrote that his vision for the bookstore includes "a major store renovation" aimed at improving how it serves the community. The bookstore needs "a major capital investment" to better equip the store, he added.
The committee's review has so far found that the bookstore has four critical roles: to provide course materials, retail books and merchandise, and to have a welcoming atmosphere for patrons and Thayer Street.
Specifically, textbooks should be provided at competitive prices; general fiction and nonfiction books sold on the ground floor should "represent the University's academic strength" through quality; merchandise sold should be manufactured without the use of sweatshops to "reflect the values of the community;" and the layout should be "comfortable, inviting. We would certainly like it to be a good anchor store on Thayer Street," Huidekoper said.
"Our job is to see that (the bookstore) does serve those critical roles first and foremost," she said.
Huidekoper emphasized the difficulty of providing sweatshop-free apparel in the bookstore because wholesale providers frequently change ownership and suppliers.
Above all, she added, the bookstore's primary function is to provide for students and faculty members. "We have to make sure that we balance the interests but also meet our primary needs first ... student and faculty needs," she said.
Carr wrote that as far as people working at the bookstore are concerned, everyone wants to see "a bookstore that focuses on student services, but a store that is also attractive to faculty, staff, alumni and area residents - one that will enhance the Thayer Street retail district."
Partnership with chains like Barnes & Noble College, a division of the bookselling giant devoted to college bookstores, is the way many other schools have gone. Nearly all other Ivy League bookstores are managed or co-owned by Barnes & Noble College, which runs over 500 bookstores nationwide. Brown's bookstore has always been owned entirely by the University.
"We have not by any means made a decision, but we're looking at all options," Huidekoper said.
"The advantage of going with a large chain is that they have a core competency with bookselling that we don't have," said Herald opinions columnist Zachary Townsend '08, a member of the review committee. "We as a university aren't necessarily good at buying in bulk or displays or training our employees," he said.
The chains the review committee has examined claim they can reduce textbook costs, Townsend said, but he added that prices of new textbooks are often fixed.
Jana Jarolimova '08 said she would be less likely to buy her textbooks at the Univeristy's store if it were partnered with a national bookstore. "I really like how it is affiliated with the University," she said.
The Brown Bookstore has already worked with Providence bookseller Symposium Books for about a year, according to Carr. Carr said the collaboration began "because (Symposium has) a nice selection of bargain books that also appeal to the academic community." He said the project has been successful so far, and the bookstore is considering expansion of the Symposium section to a new floor.
According to University archives, the bookstore originally evolved from a general store meant to furnish students with supplies such as paper, coffee makers and household products. That dates back at least to 1935.
In 1941, the University issued a memo stating its intent to develop "a 'Bookstore' in the true sense of the word." More than just a textbook supplier, the store was designed to be "a more effective agency in encouraging the students to know, appreciate and own books." By 1962, Brown had established Rhode Island's largest college bookstore.
In February 1970, the Brown Bookstore moved from the basement of Faunce House to its current location.
