May 27, 2004

Profile: Jerry Jacobson

Title and length of service: General manager, Norris Center Bookstore

photo by Stephen Anzaldi

What do you do? It’s my responsibility to provide for students’ book needs. I make sure we have all the textbooks, on time. I try to get the best prices and have as many used books for sale as possible.

How do you do that? This past quarter we worked with the Associate Student Government to list the top 20 textbooks we need on the ASG Web site. We had a great response from students. We are currently working with administrators and faculty to get book orders in early enough for next fall so that we know what books, and what specific editions, we’ll need. The more book orders we have before finals the more books we can buy back from the students at a greater price. Books we buy have to be in fairly good condition and adopted for the next term in order to pay the students half the price they paid for the book.

The road to Northwestern: I’ve always worked in retail. I typically work Monday through Friday, except during book rush.

What do you do outside of work? I live in Elk Grove Village. I’m active on the board of directors of my church. I have two grown children. My wife and I love to travel. Soon, we’ll be traveling with 10 friends somewhere in the United States. I say somewhere, because we don’t know where we’re going for the four-day weekend. Two members of our card group are planning the trip with money we’ve saved as a group. They’ve been sending us weekly clues, but we won’t know the exact location until we arrive at the airport. I don’t care where we go. It will be fun just being together.

— Marilyn Idelman Soglin