Seminary Co-op
The Seminary Cooperative Bookstores, Inc. , also known as Seminary Co-op (name of the main library) are a cooperative with three bookstores in Chicago , two of them, and very close to the campus of the University of Chicago in Hyde Park, Chicago . It was founded in 1961.
The Seminary Co-op , also called Sem Co-op , is the main business. It is located on campus and contains the largest selection of academic textbooks in the United States. The Sem Co-op was so well respected that Columbia University tried to persuade manager Jack Cella to open a branch in New York in the 1990s. 57th Street Books , a few blocks from Sem Co-op , has more popular books. The Newberry Library in north Chicago completes the bookselling cooperative. All three libraries see themselves as a place where the customer lingers for a while, "gets lost" in the corridors, or sits down with a book on the occasional chairs and tables.
Seminary Cooperative Bookstores, Inc. is offering equity shares for $ 10 per share, giving stockholders a 10% discount in stores. The rather low profits are reinvested in the bookstores. Today 53,000 people own shares in the Seminary Coop, 3,500 of them outside the USA. During the academic year, weekly seminars and readings are freely accessible to visitors, in which authors often present their new book.