The Bookseller Oral History Project collects the historical experiences, insights, and perspectives of current and former booksellers. These interviews help preserve the culture of bookselling, the work practices, the decision-making processes, historical actions, and events, and they preserve the institutional memory of bookselling in general.

Booksellers rarely tell their own stories and their impact on their communities is often anonymous.

This project aims to preserve their legacy.

Lanora Jennings began this project in 2023 after a conversation at an academic conference with other researchers in the History of the Book field. Many noted how difficult it was to find primary sources from booksellers—retail operations rarely donate their papers to library archives. As a former bookseller, Lanora thought that the best way to preserve the history of bookselling was through the voices of the booksellers themselves.