[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/titles1.jpg” caption=”The Titles Bookstore will celebrate its 75th anniversary on Thursday, March 29.”]The Titles Bookstore will celebrate its 75th anniversary on Thursday, March 29. The event will feature prize draws, a cake cutting at noon and special sales (at 10 a.m., 12 noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.).

Back in 1931, McMaster University's first bookstore, The Book Room,
began operation under the management of Miss Keown. Her yearly salary
was $900 and she received one month's vacation a year. The store
itself was an 18' by 20' room in the basement of University Hall — a mere 360 square feet.

By the mid 1960s, the store had taken up residence in the basement of the “new building,” Gilmour Hall, expanding to 7,500 square feet of
selling space. It was cutting edge back then, with its computerized
system of continual inventory and bookstore credit policy — one of only five universities in Canada to use one. During this time, fall rush line-ups of a half hour weren't unheard of and on the busiest day, the staff of 36 served 4,600 people.

Throughout the 1970s, as the campus population grew, bookstore staff began to erect temporary tents outside the main entrance of the store. This new system helped control the line-ups students faced when
purchasing their textbooks at the start of the new fall semester.

In 1974, the Health Sciences Bookstore opened its new location in the Health Sciences Centre. Even more space relief was found when the Auxiliary Bookstore, fondly referred to as The Tank, opened in 1977 in the basement of Togo Salmon Hall for the exclusive sale of textbooks.

The 1980s saw even more changes with the installation of theft
detectors and the post office moving into the bookstore.

Seventy-five years later, McMaster University Bookstores cover 17,000 square feet of selling space over three locations.

A staff of 42 full-timers and up to 100 part-timers during the busier seasons serve more than 17,000 undergrads as well as the graduate students, staff and faculty that make up the McMaster community. Approximately 10,000 people were served on the busiest day last September.

A student's source for textbooks, the university's bookstores also
provide a wide range of services and other products such as clothing,
giftware, computers and stationery as well as a large selection of
general interest books.

Never ignorant of the university's needs, the bookstores also provide over $500,000 a year to the campus community, enhancing student services, providing funding for student groups and contributing to the quality of student life on campus.