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Looking for reading material? Have you heard about one of the best-kept secrets on campus?
The Book Stack Program, located on the first floor of Mary Reed Building, has many books available for cheap, covering a wide range of subjects.
The Women’s Library Association and the Friends of Penrose Library consists of a group of volunteers who obtain book gifts on behalf of DU’s Library, selling these for extremely low prices and donating all proceeds to Penrose.
The mission statement of the WLA is that “a great university must have as its heart a great library.”
“We quietly, and sometimes loudly, support the university’s library by steadily raising money,” said Sandee Walling, former president of the WLA, long-time Book Stack volunteer and a graduate alumna of DU.
The Book Stack has books in almost every genre, including political science, history, psychology, biology, chemistry, physics, fiction, children’s books, foreign language and travel, do-it-yourself handbooks and even cookbooks.
“If students are doing research and don’t know where to look, we strongly encourage them to come in and browse our shelves – we have plenty of textbooks from past years and other academic resources.
We often get students from the Iliff School of Theology walking out of here with plenty of books for research,” said Walling.
But don’t assume that all the books at the Book Stack are for research only.
Ten shelves of paperback fiction, in addition to several more of literature fiction are available for casual perusal.
Books are priced very cheap. Almost all hardcover books are $1, including a hardcover copy of best-seller “The Help.” Paperback novels are $0.25 per book, or five for $1.
The Book Stack features monthly specials. February includes a sale on everything in the Social Sciences, Religion and Sexuality section.
In addition to monthly specials, the Book Stack also hosts two huge book sales per year, one in fall and one in spring.
“We would love to have more students coming in here, because so much of the DU student body doesn’t know that we’re here, even though the Book Stack has existed for quite some time now,” said Walling.
Interested in volunteering for or participate in the Book Stack program?
“We would love to have anyone come in and help us shelve or price books; everyone here is a volunteer. But we would be happy if students just came in and browsed our shelves,” said Walling.
The Book Stack program is located on the south side of the first floor of the Mary Reed Building, and is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
