George Luste, the organizer of the Wilderness Canoeing Symposium, has long been a collector of northern books. His organization, Northern Books, specializes in rare, antiquarian, used and select new books dealing with northern topics, including the Arctic, Exploration, Canoeing, Fur Trade, Native Peoples, Natural History, Wilderness and other related topics; it has in stock something in excess of 5,000 items.

Due to other commitments, the northern book service is currently only active at the Wilderness Symposium each year. Specific book requests may still be serviced.