Nancy L. Dole has spent more than three decades surrounded by the “magic” of old paper. Now, as she settles into her fourth location on the first floor of The Mill at Shelburne Falls, the longtime bookstore owner is ready to let the paper take center stage. While her business cards still promise “Good Used Books,” Dole is shifting her focus toward ephemera — those items originally meant to be tossed away that, in her hands, become historical treasures.
While ephemera technically refers to vintage paper, Dole — the owner of Nancy L. Dole Books & Ephemera — insists it is much more than that. Her inventory is a paper trail of history: seed catalogues, old phonebooks, postcards, menus and town reports. If an item is paper-based, aged and carries a story, chances are it has a place on Dole’s shelves.
After 12 years at 16 State St., at the end of the Bridge of Flowers, Dole moved to The Mill in March. The place, in her eyes, looked very different. It was a smaller location, had a concrete floor and measured in at roughly 450 square feet. Although Dole said she’s “very happy” in her new space. The new location has also attracted a new audience, she added.
“Moving here was major,” Dole said. “I had the good fortune of my partner, my relatives and a multitude of friends who boxed books for me … I had some people with trucks truck them over here … I couldn’t bring everything because the space, like I said, is smaller.”
Dole’s expansive inventory of used books is much too large for the space’s footprint. Admittedly, the collection had already outgrown her previous storefront. To accommodate the smaller space, Nancy L. Dole Books & Ephemera will no longer be buying books.
She does, however, break this rule from time to time, especially for certain subjects, such as town or railroad histories. Dole said that if someone has Hoosac Tunnel material, she “can’t resist.”
“It’s not because I don’t want to keep my collection fresh; I do, but I have in storage … many books, and my partner is trying to help sort those for me,” Dole said. “When I want fresh material, I go to the books I already own … I have enough books to last a lifetime.”
Dole estimates she is 75% unpacked, though “who knows” is her honest assessment given the sheer scale of her inventory. Once the remaining space is cleared, she said she hopes to fit the entirety of the collection she has earmarked for the new location. This collection is currently stored in boxes in her garage, in friends’ garages and behind the desk in her new location.
During a recent conversation with The Recorder, customers wandered in and out of the store, perusing her collection of ephemera, town histories and used books.
“Good afternoon. Any special subjects you’re looking for?” Dole asked a pair of customers who entered the store.
“Cookbooks. Got any old cookbooks?” one customer asked.
By the time that customer had left the store, Dole was down about four old cookbooks.
In the past, she said 75% of her business was books and 25% was ephemera, but she’s now trying to do more with ephemera. After 33 years in business, she said the shift is partly due to the fact that “books are heavy.” The ephemera that Dole said she’s most known for is postcards, specifically real photo postcards.
Dole said the move to the new location also provides an opportunity to shake some things up and move around some of her wares. The aforementioned real photo postcards, for instance, used to be with the rest of the postcards. Now, they’re with the photographs.
At The Mill, Dole isn’t the only bookstore in town. In fact, she’s not the only bookstore on the floor. Located diagonally from her store, Ravens Used Books also offers a variety of reading material. But Dole said they’ve welcomed her with open arms; after all, for a book lover, there is no such thing as too many bookstores.
“Most people who love bookstores know,” Dole said. “Two bookstores are good, three is even better. If [we were a] florist shop it would be bad, because you only need one dozen red roses, right?”
Despite the popularity of Kindles, e-readers, and audiobooks, Dole believes the book business is not just alive — it’s thriving. A comic strip on Dole’s desk shows a person reading a book, before their electricity turns off. They grab a Kindle, and use that as their light and continue reading the paperback book.
When asked if she had any goals for her business at its new location, the answer was simple: to help her longtime customers figure out where The Mill at Shelburne Falls actually is, and when they get here, where they’ll be able to park.
“Even though The Mill is so close to the heart of the village, again and again, people … either they’ve never been here, or they don’t even know where it is,” Dole said.
Because she has older material, Dole said, she attracts more collectors than the average reader looking for a page turner. She said that sometimes people will buy books just for the illustrator, though “they [still] want the book.”
Because Dole’s shop caters to collectors, the digital revolution has largely bypassed her business. She shared an example that if someone is a student, finding a source online might be easiest, erasing the need for physical material. But her customers appreciate the works created by primary sources who lived the experience of the region.
For Dole, the enduring relevance of the book and ephemera trade is best illustrated by a single anecdote. It’s an example of why these physical pieces of history will always find a home, regardless of digital trends.
“Just to show the difference in postcards, I had a gentleman say once, ‘oh! It’s written on.’ And so he didn’t want it because of that,” Dole said. “Say you’re visiting Shelburne Falls and want a Shelburne Falls postcard to send to a friend. I may or may not have it but that’s not my type of thing necessarily. Some people buy it for the stamp, or the stamp cancellation … the reason that people buy used books and [ephemera] are very varied.”
As of presstime, Dole does not currently have a store phone number. Her store, located on the first floor of The Mill at Shelburne Falls, is open Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. She can be reached at ndole@crocker.com.
