Mission

The mission of The Whispering Shelf is to provide Indianapolis booklovers access to their next great story or learning opportunity. It is our commitment to promote a love of the written word, to make love of reading accessible to all, and to be intentional about representation, community, and continuous learning and growth.

Vision

Our vision at The Whispering Shelf is to create an environment that invites the imagination to soar and allows all members of the community to have access to the written word. We maintain a collection of new and used books. We believe a bookstore is a place for community making and as such, provide a regular events schedule to help neighbors and booklovers find and engage with one another. 

We promote a love of books by partnering with IPS teachers to provide with new and relevant books to kids to ensure they get access to books they WANT to read. 

We promote an environment run by a collaborative and transparent management style and where ideas and profits are shared amongst employees.

Core Values

• We believe that reading provides an avenue to better understand, empathize, and have compassion for others. 

• We believe that the written word has the power to change ideas, minds, and lives.

• We believe in being a business in the community that continuously strives to be anti-racist, including providing anti-racist training to all staff, ensuring our staff is properly trained to guarantee all people entering our store are treated with dignity. 

• We believe in fair hiring practices: we regularly audit the way we recruit, screen, shortlist, interview, and promote candidates, and ensure these processes are not discounting or hostile to BIPOC prospective and/or current employees.

• We acknowledge that representation is a crucial ingredient in the make-up of our store and commit to ensure that people of every race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion, culture, or any other persuasion feel welcomed, safe, and comfortable in our environment. 

• We believe in mutual aid projects to support and lift up our community members and are open to and committed to non-defensiveness when engaging in communication about ways our store can improve how we engage with our community.