vol. 24, no. 21	April 23, 1999

Columbia Bookstore in Lerner Hall Opens on Broadway

BY SUZANNE TRIMEL

Columbia's new campus bookstore is open for business in Lerner Hall-the first tenant of the new student center planned for completion this coming fall.

The bookstore, at 19,000 square feet, is Columbia's largest ever with about three times the pervious space devoted to academic books and supplies. The store entrance is on the east side of Broadway at W. 115th Street. When the rest of Lerner opens in the fall, the bookstore may also be accessed through the campus entrance to Lerner Hall.

"We welcome this handsome new store, which is an important resource for the entire Columbia community and represents another step toward the opening of our magnificent new student center," President George Rupp said.

In addition to textbooks for courses in Columbia's undergraduate and graduate professional schools on Morningside Heights, the Columbia University Bookstore carries 65,000 general fiction and non-fiction titles, general interest and specialty periodicals, academic journals, writing, desk, and computer supplies, dormitory necessities, and gifts and insignia items, such as sweatshirts and other clothing items with Columbia logos.

Faculty, students and staff are invited to join Rupp, Provost Jonathan R. Cole and the University Bookstore Advisory Committee for the grand opening reception next Wed., April 28, from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

With input from a faculty-student committee, Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, which manages the store, made an intensive effort to reflect the needs and interests of the Columbia community-down to the bright blue historical scenes of campus and students on the walls. Barnes & Noble manages 350 college bookstores nationwide, many of which are located at the country's top-ranked universities.

"We want this bookstore to mirror what's important to our community," said Kathryn Yatrakis, Columbia College dean of academic affairs and chair of the Bookstore Advisory Committee. "More than just a place to buy books, we want this wonderful new facility to become an important asset for our students and faculty as they pursue their academic goals."

Space is available for student and faculty readings and meetings. A poetry reading by English Professor Kenneth Koch was held on April 20, and a book signing is scheduled this spring by History Professor Eric Foner and his wife, writer Lynn Garafola, authors of Dance for a City, a 50-year history of the New York City Ballet. The bookstore will post a calendar of campus events.

Columbia's unique academic legacy will be highlighted through the bookstore's stock of important campus authors, past and present, and books published by Columbia University Press. Special displays are planned during the academic year featuring, for example, the works of noted current faculty authors, such as Edward Said, Simon Schama and Kenneth Jackson, and former professors, such as the late Lionel Trilling, Mark Van Doren and others. Students and others may satisfy their curiosity about what their professors read for pleasure-monthly displays will recommend recent books from the personal reading lists of faculty.

Patrons will recognize the familiar surroundings of a Barnes & Noble superstore-large wood reading tables and comfortable chairs. But there is no cafe-a purposeful decision to maximum the space devoted to book sales.

In its stock, the bookstore has tried to avoid competition with other booksellers on Broadway and locations nearby on Morningside Heights. The store will not stock children's or education-related books, so as not to compete with the Bank Street or Teachers College bookstores. Likewise, it will not stock a full line of scholarly texts, leaving that market to the Labyrinth Bookstore on W. 112 Street, just off Broadway.

The bookstore is on the Barnes & Noble authors' tour schedule for readings and book signings, said bookstore manager Kevin Renshaw, who has managed the temporary Columbia Bookstore in Lion's Court since 1996. Several readings are planned for the remainder of the semester: on Tues., April 27 at 7:00 p.m. Mary Frances Berry, chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, will read from her new book, The Pig Farmer's Daughter and Other Tales of American Justice. A reading is planned for early May by alumnus Mike Wallace, author with Edwin G. Burrows of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner for history, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.

The bookstore will be open now through the summer 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m., Mon. through Thurs.; 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Fri., and 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. on weekends. In the fall, the hours will be 9 A.M.-9 P.M. Monday through Friday and 11 A.M.-7 P.M. on the weekend. The telephone is 854-4131.