by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Tucked away behind the Liane Downtown Eye Associates on Laura Street in the shadow of Independent Square, lies the United States Government Bookstore.
Within the retail space of the store’s 3,450 square feet are rows of bookshelves lined with books, booklets and handbooks published by the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. Topics include food/nutrition, health/vital statistics, transportation/ navigation, national parks, business, commerce/trade, environment and energy, IRS codes, U.S. military history, American history, art/artists, travel, social benefits, employment/labor, census information, education, child care, training manuals, FBI crime statistics and an annual world book produced by the CIA.
Of 20,000 government publications available, the bookstore carries 1,500 titles. Almost every industry is regulated by a federal code and every government entity has at least one book on regulatory practices. Much of what is offered in the store depends on the manager’s judgment. Store manager Vickie Batzka operates the shop with help from two clerks, Pete Weinberg and Patty Bibbins.
“It’s standard for any bookstore to carry things that have a general appeal,” she said.
“We get a lot of people coming in for OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] material. We have a certain group of lawyers who come in for codes of federal regulation, our legal documents. Most of the legal community knows we’re here. A lot of people happen by, start browsing and are amazed at how many books are available.”
For those not willing to pay the nominal official government price for books, there are three government depository branches in Jacksonville that loans books. There are located at Jacksonville University, the University of North Florida and the main branch of the Jacksonville Public Library. Conversely, the bookstore serves as a resource for colleges who wish to incorporate government documents into their texts. The selection at depositories is not necessarily the same as the that of the bookstore. Although the law requires the public to have access to government documents free of charge, it is up to that organization to decide what documents they carry.
“When a title comes along that a government agency wants to make available to the public, or if a title comes along the GPO believes is of interest to the public, we will print what the agency requires then get enough copies for the sales program,” said Batzka. “For many of the documents here, the agency has asked that we make sure they’re available to the public.”
The store’s largest clientele is based in the maritime industry.
“Nautical dealers, because of the proximity to the ocean, are probably are largest single interest group,” said Batzka. “I try to get my hands on everything nautical people would want. What big ships need when they’re sailing is a list of where lighthouses are all along the coast. They are five volumes of those. We have dealers from New York to Texas who buy from us.”
In these days of electronic information, bookstores, even those run by the government, are quickly becoming relics of the past.
“Government printing agencies are making a great deal of information available over the Internet for free,” said Batzka. “It has cut into the sale of printed material. But it will be a long time before the demand for printed documents ceases.”
According to Batzka, the GPO and the IRS are the only two federal agencies expected to make a profit and be self-supporting. There are only 15 such bookstores in the nation, excluding the one in D.C. and a central warehouse. A new store has not opened in 15 years. With the proliferation of online users, revenues have dropped in the past few years.
“In the last four years, private printers have begun to reprint a lot of government documents,” she said. “Very little in the government section is copyrighted because it’s paid for by tax dollars. There was a time, maybe five or six years ago, when we were doing close to $1 million in sales a year. Most of that was nautical. There were several years that we hit a million dollars. Between private publishers and the Internet, that’s not true anymore.”
Batzka believes their current location is their salvation. Pedestrians can easily spot the storefront on the way to the Landing. Their former location in the Charles Bennett Federal Building was not visible from the street. Other government bookstores have not fared as well.
“The trend has been more towards downsizing,” she said. “Several of our less productive bookstores have been closed recently, not necessarily because of their productivity, but because of the cost the economic decision was made to close them.”