The Second Story Used Books is located at 713 Main Street, Canmore, Alberta, Canada, right at the entrance to Banff National Park. Main Street is easy to find on foot from anywhere in town, with parking available nearby along Main Street and the surrounding side streets.

Browsing in person is still the best way to experience the full range of our stock, particularly in categories like Canadian History, Climbing, and Art, where condition and edition are easier to judge with the book in hand.

If you are visiting with a specific project in mind, a restoration, a research topic, a reading list, it is worth telling us when you arrive. We can usually save you a good deal of shelf time.

Our hours shift a little with the mountain seasons, with longer hours through the busy summer and holiday travel periods and a slightly reduced schedule in the quieter shoulder seasons.

If you are planning a special trip to the store, especially outside of peak travel months or if you are driving in from outside the valley, a quick call or email ahead is the safest way to confirm we will be open when you arrive.

For general questions, comments, or suggestions, the most reliable way to reach us is by email at info@SecondStoryBooks.ca. This is the same address our team monitors for order questions, condition questions on specific titles, and anything else that does not fit neatly into a form.

We try to reply to every message personally, since much of what we do, tracking down an edition, confirming condition, or estimating shipping, benefits from a real conversation rather than an automated response.

Replies are usually quick, though during busy summer weeks it can occasionally take a day or two.

If you cannot find a title through our online catalogue, use our Offline Search Service rather than a general contact message. Give us as much detail as you can: author, title, edition, publisher, approximate year, or even a rough description if that is all you remember.

We will search our own shelves along with other bookstores and book-search services on your behalf, and follow up by email once we have located a match, along with condition and price, so you can decide whether it is the copy you are looking for.

Incomplete details are not a problem. Some of our most satisfying finds began with nothing more than a cover colour and a single remembered scene.

Because we charge actual shipping cost rather than a flat rate, questions about a specific order’s shipping charge are common, and we are glad to confirm an estimate before you complete a purchase.

The default shipping figure shown at checkout is calculated for a 1 kg book, so if your order is lighter, or if you are ordering several books that will travel together in one parcel, write to us and we can usually give you a more accurate number in advance.

For international orders, we can also advise on typical delivery times to your country, though customs processing is outside our control.

If you have a collection, an estate library, or simply a box of books you no longer need, we are often interested in buying or trading.

Send us a description of what you have, roughly how many books, general subjects, and overall condition, and we will let you know whether it is a good fit for the store and arrange a time to take a closer look. For larger collections we can usually come to you.

We are particularly interested in regional and Canadian Rockies material, mountaineering and climbing libraries, community and local history publications, and well-kept reference collections.

For press inquiries, partnership questions, community events, or anything that does not fall under the categories above, info@SecondStoryBooks.ca remains the right place to start.

Include a short description of what you are hoping to discuss and we will route it to the right person.

Whether you are chasing a single out-of-print title, planning a visit on your way into Banff National Park, or simply have a question about how we grade condition, do not hesitate to write. Independent bookstores run on exactly this kind of conversation, and we enjoy it.

Many of the best finds in our store began as a short email describing a half-remembered title, a cover colour, or a line from a story someone read decades ago. Do not worry if the details you have are incomplete; tell us what you remember and we will take it from there.

We also welcome feedback on the store itself, whether that is a category you wish we carried more deeply, a suggestion for the website, or simply a note about a book that made your visit worthwhile. Running a used bookstore is very much a conversation with the people who shop here, and we read every message we receive.