Our campus has a lot of different opportunities available to the students, and one of these very interesting resources is the bookstore! What exactly makes the bookstore special? What makes the bookstore a bookstore? These questions and more will be answered in this article!
When some people think of the bookstore, they think of the merchandise that is always front and center on display. Still, you’d be surprised to know how many students don’t know that the bookstore actually involves books. While SNU swag is a fundamental part of the bookstore, there is more to it than just the merch. The bookstore is owned by a company called Slingshot which helps students get their books each semester.
The bookstore orders and receives all of the books for the semester and assigns them to students. The books are packaged by hand for each student, both on campus and off campus, and delivered to them before they come back in for the new semester. The bookstore currently has three people and one student working to manage the whole school and the work can be overwhelming. Chris Moore, bookstore director, tells what he finds to be the most difficult part of managing the bookstore, saying, “When a faculty chooses a book, we say that they’ve adopted that book for his class.” Adopting is the process of ordering said book and assigning it to the specific faculty, which is then assigned to the many students taking that class. It’s important to get the right book, figure out where it’s coming from, and determine how many are needed.
The bookstore, along with many other bookstore campuses, has a system for sharing books. If you’ve ever noticed, sometimes the back of the book says that it came from a different campus or library. After all the books have been given to the students for the semester, there are some extra books on the shelf. The term “pulling books from the shelf” simply means that those extra books will be shipped off to other places that have requested them. At the end of the semester or throughout the semester, when students no longer need their books, they can return them to the bookstore, where they are then labeled and put back on the shelf. The students can buy their books if they want, and if they do and decide they don’t want them anymore, then the bookstore can buy them back. This means that the student would get some money for the return, but the price can vary from book to book.
Linda, a variety worker, does many things around the bookstore. She tells about the one thing she would get from the bookstore, saying, “Every now and then I’ll get a new t-shirt or sweatshirt.” When the shipments for new items come in, she receives them and puts them into the system. After having them uploaded and the price set, the labels get added and then put in the store for customers to buy. This doesn’t stop at the merch but everything that is for sale in the store. That means even snacks, hand sanitizer, writing utensils, and medicine are included in this process. They all have to be received, labeled, and added to the store. She also handles the ordering when the store starts to run low on items and the restocking. The option to order online is optional, and she handles the emails and orders placed for that as well.
Whether it’s books, merchandise, or customers, the staff works hard to make sure that everything runs smoothly, so that we have the bookstore that we do! The next time that you walk into the bookstore, be sure to tell them thank you, and never be afraid to ask any questions! The bookstore often has some cool sales going on every once in a while. It’s currently holding its spring sale called, “Sling Into Spring,” where every item involved with the sale is fifty percent off! Don’t miss out on it, and get something cool while you have the chance!
Our campus has a lot of different opportunities available to the students, and one of these very interesting resources is the bookstore! What exactly makes the bookstore special? What makes the bookstore a bookstore? These questions and more will be answered in this article!
When some people think of the bookstore, they think of the merchandise that is always front and center on display. Still, you’d be surprised to know how many students don’t know that the bookstore actually involves books. While SNU swag is a fundamental part of the bookstore, there is more to it than just the merch. The bookstore is owned by a company called Slingshot which helps students get their books each semester.
The bookstore orders and receives all of the books for the semester and assigns them to students. The books are packaged by hand for each student, both on campus and off campus, and delivered to them before they come back in for the new semester. The bookstore currently has three people and one student working to manage the whole school and the work can be overwhelming. Chris Moore, bookstore director, tells what he finds to be the most difficult part of managing the bookstore, saying, “When a faculty chooses a book, we say that they’ve adopted that book for his class.” Adopting is the process of ordering said book and assigning it to the specific faculty, which is then assigned to the many students taking that class. It’s important to get the right book, figure out where it’s coming from, and determine how many are needed.
The bookstore, along with many other bookstore campuses, has a system for sharing books. If you’ve ever noticed, sometimes the back of the book says that it came from a different campus or library. After all the books have been given to the students for the semester, there are some extra books on the shelf. The term “pulling books from the shelf” simply means that those extra books will be shipped off to other places that have requested them. At the end of the semester or throughout the semester, when students no longer need their books, they can return them to the bookstore, where they are then labeled and put back on the shelf. The students can buy their books if they want, and if they do and decide they don’t want them anymore, then the bookstore can buy them back. This means that the student would get some money for the return, but the price can vary from book to book.
Linda, a variety worker, does many things around the bookstore. She tells about the one thing she would get from the bookstore, saying, “Every now and then I’ll get a new t-shirt or sweatshirt.” When the shipments for new items come in, she receives them and puts them into the system. After having them uploaded and the price set, the labels get added and then put in the store for customers to buy. This doesn’t stop at the merch but everything that is for sale in the store. That means even snacks, hand sanitizer, writing utensils, and medicine are included in this process. They all have to be received, labeled, and added to the store. She also handles the ordering when the store starts to run low on items and the restocking. The option to order online is optional, and she handles the emails and orders placed for that as well.
Whether it’s books, merchandise, or customers, the staff works hard to make sure that everything runs smoothly, so that we have the bookstore that we do! The next time that you walk into the bookstore, be sure to tell them thank you, and never be afraid to ask any questions! The bookstore often has some cool sales going on every once in a while. It’s currently holding its spring sale called, “Sling Into Spring,” where every item involved with the sale is fifty percent off! Don’t miss out on it, and get something cool while you have the chance!
Photo by Amira Cooper-Stennis