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August 3, 2009

MSSU to open new bookstore on Thursday

By Laura Dimmit

news@joplinglobe.com

The old bookstore at Missouri Southern State University is, to purloin a literary reference, “Gone With the Wind.”

The new bookstore — which includes 54 panels of glass that run from floor to ceiling — is “A Room With a View.”

The university will have a grand-opening ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Thursday for the new bookstore in the main lobby of Billingsly Student Center.

The new bookstore has more than 3,000 square feet of retail space — almost double the 1,600 square feet of the old store. The additional space will allow the bookstore to expand its inventory to include more food, magazines and movies, as well as textbooks.

Not quite a “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” the old bookstore was in the basement of the student center, and bookstore manager Greg Needham said that “just by the mere location, (the new store) is easier to get to.”

“The old (store) ... I don’t think it had been renovated in so long,” he said. “It was small and outdated.”

The store also will have a new electronic surveillance system, made possible by a $100,000 donation from AT&T.;

Needham said having a new bookstore makes a difference for the university.

“It’s a better impression to those who come on campus and visit,” he said.





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