A University Book Store employee has been nationally recognized for her work in college book stores.

Jacqueline Slaughter, manager of the book division in the University Book Store, earned her Certified Store Professional designation from the Association of College Stores, which she has been working towards for a year and a half.

Slaughter said the award means she has met the requirements for national recognition in her field.

She said the designation will help when she presents at conferences because “people recognize that you have gone through the certification process.”

As the University Book Store’s book division manager, Slaughter is responsible for ordering and stocking text books, general reading books and course works, which are course packets the book store prints.

She is currently working on revamping the store’s reservation program for freshmen, she said.

“It’s a good program but there’s always room for improvement,” she said.

Slaughter is also looking into ways to make it easier for students to sign up for the reservation program and to pick books up.

Slaughter must continue to stay active in the book industry to gain points to renew her certification every five years.

Slaughter has presented at several national and regional conferences. The University Book Store is able to use more advanced business techniques that smaller businesses are not able to use. Slaughter presents this information to them at the conferences.

“It’s one of the things that are more fun when you get to go tell people what you’ve been doing and how things work at your store,” Slaughter said.

To gain her certification, Slaughter had to pay a fee, take a four-hour test and then work on accumulating at least 800 points based on her experience in her field, her involvement in the college store industry, her level of community service and her level of education.

It took her a year and a half after taking her test to finally get all the points she needed, she said. For someone else, she said, it might take no time at all to collect the points because of previous experience.

Slaughter did not get into the college store business until after she moved to Ames in 1989, following her husband to his new job from Texas.

A position was open in the University Book Store and she decided to apply.

“It was totally new for me,” she said. “I had never been involved in the book store industry.”

Since moving to Ames, she has been very involved in the community and the college store industry.

She serves as president of the Board of Trustees at Ames Public Library and is a literacy tutor.

She was just appointed to serve on the General Book Committee of the national organization of book stores.