Recent History
In 1980, Roy Kepler’s son Clark took over the management of the bookstore. The store had three different locations in Menlo Park, moving in 1989 to its current location in the Menlo Center on El Camino Real. In 1990 Publishers Weekly named Kepler’s “Bookseller of the Year.”
Due to the rise of chain bookstores and online shopping, Kepler's closed its doors on August 31, 2005. The local community held demonstrations to protest the closing. Kepler's subsequently re-opened in October 2005 with community investments, volunteers and donations.
In 2008, The Kepler's children's department won the Pannell Award for excellence. In addition, the 2008 documentary Paperback Dreams chronicles the related histories of Kepler's and the now defunct Cody's Books in Berkeley, California.
In 2012, Clark Kepler and Praveen Madan, of San Francisco's "The Booksmith," put together the Kepler’s "Transition Team," a group of volunteer local business and community leaders, which launched “Kepler’s 2020,” an initiative that seeks to transform the independent bookstore into a next-generation community literary and cultural center. The project aims to 'create a hybrid business model that includes a for-profit, community-owned-and-operated bookstore, and a nonprofit organization that will feature on-stage author interviews, lectures by leading intellectuals, educational workshops and other literary and cultural events,' according to Kepler's press release. The current vision is to split Kepler's into two legal entities -- a for-profit business and a community and charity nonprofit -- with the complementary goals of fostering a culture of books, ideas and 'intellectual discourse and civic engagement in the community,' according to Kepler's press release."
Read more about this topic: Kepler's Books
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