By:  Michael Patterson, Lion’s Eye Staff Writer, map6169@psu.edu

Nestled on the second floor of the Commons building, the Penn State Brandywine bookstore is a hidden treasure. Two large glass doors lead you into a plethora of textbooks and student apparel. With a rich Penn State history and the promise of higher learning, the bookstore is a hidden gem that every student on Brandywine’s Campus should visit.

One can access the bookstore Mondays through Thursdays from 8:30 a.m – 5:00 p.m, or on Fridays until 4:00 p.m. In the first few hectic weeks of the school year, the store is at its busiest selling textbooks for all incoming students. The store offers everything from basic classroom essentials to the iconic Penn State apparel. Apparel is especially popular with local residents who live and breathe Penn State. In the last two weeks, the store starts to buzz again with students looking to prepare for finals or sell their used textbooks.

Over the summer, the bookstore has reinvented school shopping with a phone app that allows students to purchase, rent, or download their classroom specific books. The app, ‘My College Bookstore,’ is available on the apple store or android for all PSU Brandywine students as well as other satellite campuses. When a student downloads the app, they get student and campus-specific sales which include a 25% off discount for downloading the app.

The Penn State Bookstore at Brandywine has been on campus for over 30 years and was originally run by Penn State Main Campus, but in the last 22 years it has been controlled by Barnes and Noble College. The Bookstore is managed by Alan Pine for the past three years, who is also a Penn State Altoona Alumni.

When a student starts their chapter at Penn State Brandywine, their first step is to prepare for their upcoming classes and there is no better way to start than by visiting the Penn State Brandywine Bookstore for all their needs.