Online store turns new page in Student Book Supply’s 76-year history

From cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to Gutenberg’s press and Bible apps, the history of theological texts has always been a story of changing technology. And today, there’s a new page in that story: the Yale Divinity School Student Book Supply is now online.

Thanks to the Student Book Supply’s just-launched online store, theologically-curious readers anywhere in the U.S. and Canada can shop the store’s full stock of books—over 12,000 titles—on everything from apocalyptic literature and ancient Judaism to Black studies and feminist theology.

Shoppers can also choose from a wide selection of YDS gear, including sweatshirts, diploma frames, coffee mugs, and other merchandise. As always, members of the clergy and YDS alumni receive a 10 percent discount on all items.  

Micah Luce ’07 M.A.R. ’08 S.T.M., manager of the Student Book Supply (SBS) since 2008, emphasized that the online store will expand—not replace—the brick-and-mortar store that has operated on the YDS quad for nearly eight decades.

“The bookstore is moving forward, happily and strongly, with the support of Dean Sterling and Chief Administrative Officer Sandra Lynch,” explained Luce.

An enduring story

In an era of online retail giants, the SBS’s ability to move forward isn’t taken for granted. In the past decade, bookstores at many other theological institutions like Hartford Seminary, Harvard Divinity School, and Andover-Newton Theological School—not to mention big-box booksellers like Borders—were forced to close.

As far as Luce knows, Yale Divinity School could be the oldest bookstore of its kind in the nation.

 “I don’t believe there is an independent, theological bookseller in the States that has continually operated longer than the Student Book Supply,” he said.

Dean Greg Sterling agreed.

“YDS has one of the last independent bookstores in any divinity school or seminary in the United States,” he explained. “We are committed to offering this service as long as it is feasible. Offering books online gives you an opportunity to acquire books for yourself and to assist in the education of students currently at YDS.”

The SBS began in 1938 as a student run-cooperative with a charter to “carry on education for community life; to promote the economic and cultural welfare of its members through consumer cooperation […] and provide educational and consumer goods on a non-profit basis.” In first decade of operation, student membership cost $5 and members received a 20 percent dividend on all their purchases.

Another goal of the SBS’s mission was educating YDS students about the relevance of the cooperative movement to “theologically concerned young people.” In 1950 the bookstore sponsored an essay contest asking students to write about the importance of “The Local Church in the Cooperative Movement.” The winning essay declared: “Co-ops have been and can be a means of achieving a better understanding of the ethical implications of Christianity between groups.”

According to Lisa Huck ’88 M.Div. who served as SBS manager from 1988 until assuming her current role as YDS Registrar in 2008, the bookstore originally occupied space near the present-day Jonathan Edwards dining room and later moved to the basement of Bellamy Hall.

“The basement of Bellamy was an interesting place to house a bookstore,” remembered Huck. “For one thing, it was hard to find. One of our former deans used to like to joke that one needed a PhD to find the bookstore.”

Despite the space’s challenges—low ceilings, occasional floods, visits from “a variety of non-human residents,” and the hassle of hauling book boxes up and down the stairs—the SBS thrived in its Bellamy location until 2001 when the bookstore was granted a newly-renovated space near the main YDS entrance, its current location.

Reliable, local, sustainable

Though the bookstore is now incorporated with the university and operationally independent, the SBS has adhered to its original mission throughout its 76-year existence.

“We exist primarily to support the faculty and students that are at Yale Divinity School right now,” explained Luce. “Every purchase made, first and foremost, supports the current faculty, staff, and student body.”

The main way the SBS supports YDS community is by providing a reliable, local, and sustainable place for students to buy textbooks for class. Anyone can shop at the store, but students who purchase a $30 yearly membership, receive a 15 percent discount on all books and merchandise.

But another part of that mission is promoting the work of the school’s faculty, students, and alumni. In the campus store large shelves lined with books by YDS faculty and alumni appear front-and-center—a very visible marker of YDS’s many contributions to church and world.

In fact, the volume of work published by the YDS community often presents Luce and his three student employees with a spatial challenge:

“It’s ridiculous how prolific our current and past faculty and students and alums are,” laughed Luce. “The section of books from students and alums has really filled up—I’m going to have to move it.”

Though shelf space isn’t a concern in an online store, Luce was equally committed to keeping YDS work central. He worked with the web developer to create galleries of YDS-authored books, sorted into three categories: faculty, former faculty, and students/alumni.

“We’re really proud of the fact that either front-and-center in the store or top and left on the website is an amazing selection of books by current and past faculty and students,” said Luce.

“Theologically passionate booksellers”

There’s more: the bookstore also organizes an annual book party to celebrate work written or edited by YDS faculty within the past year, hosts alumni book readings, and converts part of their store into a study nook with free coffee for YDS students during exam periods. From time to time, the store has been known to give away free popcorn.

Little known to most at YDS, however, the bookstore also sells audio recordings of the YDS Beecher Lecture series dating back to 1950. Not every year is available—some of the recordings have sadly deteriorated—but the SBS retains an distinguished list featuring lectures by W.H. Auden, Gardner Taylor, Carl Frederic Buechner, William Sloane Coffin, Phyllis Trible, James Forbes, Walter Brueggemann, Ellen Davis, and many more.

But for Luce, the difference between a bookstore like the SBS and online megastores is what he explains as the value of “theologically trained and theologically passionate booksellers.”

“We personally know many of the authors and we love them,” he said. “That’s something you will get at other independent bookstores but not at Amazon.”

And as Luce sees it, there’s no better way to support the mission of YDS.

“And given Yale Divinity School’s mission statement—‘To foster the love and knowledge of God’—we just happen to be able to foster the love and knowledge of God as it relates to books.”

Shop the store: http://www.yaledivinitybookstore.com/