Bookstore offers alternative options

Students in 32 different classes this semester received an unusual request when professors required them to buy textbooks from Boxcar Books. The nonprofit business, which is run solely by volunteers, has been increasingly involved in the community since arriving about four years ago. \n"Most people in the community have a tie to the University in some way or another," said the store's General Coordinator Abbey Friedman. "But as for working directly with the University in the last year it's really blown up for us." \nThrough word of mouth, Boxcar has continued to grow by breaking stereotypes of unorganized independent bookstores that have failed, professors said. \n"Students are always impressed by how quickly they can get the books they need and that they can go someplace low key to resell some of their books," Communication and cultures assistant professor Mary Gray said. "Really the only complaint is that Boxcar only takes cash, checks or credit cards." \nGray said she often hears comments from her students expressing disbelief that a nonprofit bookstore exists. She said other comments include students saying they appreciate not having to wait in line at the IU Bookstore. However, she said students are sometimes disappointed they cannot credit their purchases to their bursar accounts. \nShe also said many students found Boxcar's location at 310 S. Washington St. to be troublesome. \n"We get some phone calls asking for directions from freshmen who have no idea where they're going and haven't left campus yet," Friedman said. "We get questions like 'Why did my professor order books from here? Why do I have to come here?'" \nBut, overall the response has been positive, and people have been excited to find the store as an alternative, Friedman said. \nThese kinds of spaces are critical to intellectual communities because they offer things that can't be found anywhere else, Gray said.\n"They feed our curiosity about topics otherwise not in our sights," she said. "Sure, a big bookstore can do that too, but these stores are increasingly driven by marketing machines that squeeze out small publishing houses and alternative voices in print." \nIndependent book stores are difficult to find outside of large cities, Gray discovered Boxcar, she was overjoyed. She said she was impressed by their commitment to become a community space for public readings, performances and meetings. \n"My undergrad institution had a similar progressive bookstore," Gray said. "But they were frozen out of campus book sales by a campus bookstore and one off-campus textbook provider." \nMicah Ling, a graduate student and teacher, has ordered books for her writing classes from Boxcar since last year and suggested that having Boxcar as an alternative to the IU Bookstore and TIS is a good thing. \n"It's a good way to force students to look around a little," she said. "(And) get a feel for the place that they're a part of and remind them that they can get involved in things outside of their school world"