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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 7. 1966.

Bookshop is needed now

Bookshop is needed now

SIR,—The idea of a university bookshop has been bandied around for a number of years now. What's been done? Nothing! The student body now numbers nearly 5000 students and at a conservative estimate each student spends £10 to £15 a year on books. Excluding staff buying, a good bookshop in this university could expect a turnover of between £50.000 and £75.000 per annum, probably considerably more. Furthermore, much of this turnover would be guaranteed in the sale of textbooks and sales would continue to increase each year.

The present situation is completely inadequate. No one bookshop in town adequately covers the university trade; there is continual under-ordering because the shops do not have accurate Information on how many books, or what books, are required. Many of the "egghead" paperbacks, both English and American, which are now on the market never appear in Wellington bookshops because they are not always a safe economic proposition.

A bookshop of a reasonable size (at least 1500 square feet) in the university would be able to cover many of these books because most of the turnover would come from the "bread-and-butter" textbook trade at the beginning of the year. This guaranteed income would enable the bookshop to take greater risks on the more specialised books —a risk which no bookshop in Wellington is prepared or able to take A far wider range of books would be available.

The supply of textbooks could also be covered much more adequately than at present. A capable manager could establish much closer contact With the various departments, getting accurate figures on the number of books needed. The bookshop would then be able to have adequate stocks before the varsity year started.

So far there has been very little discussion and even less action. The Student Union building is never likely to have adequate spare room to house a bookshop of any size.

There is little point in cramming a bookshop into one small room as there would not be enough room to cover adequate stock. Last year's Paul's Bookshop and Whitcombe's present bookshop in the Student Union building are all right as novelties but they are wholly inadequate. A permanent bookshop at Victoria would be able to have an infinitely wider range of books available all the time.

Some senior members of the university administration are apparently not interested in a varsity bookshop as was seen recently when a number of houses became vacant when departments moved into the new Library Block. Room is always scarce in the university but availability of books, especially textbooks, is Just as important as availability of lectures. It is up to students and the student association to keep informed of the situation and to keep the pressure on the university administration.

Roger Parsons.