MILFORD — Lots of small business owners take their work seriously, and there are definite signs of that in Susan Shaw as she and husband, Phillip Givens, prepare to open a second Collected Stories Bookstore, this one in the heart of Walnut Beach, an artsy area undergoing a renaissance.

“It’s more like an adoption agency; you just try to get the right book in the right person’s hand,” Shaw said.

Shaw left a longtime career as a publishing executive three years ago to open Collected Stories Bookstore on Daniel Street, which specializes in rare and out-of-print books.

Shaw’s knowledge of the field, long hours of work and honesty in dealing with customers have helped make her downtown business popular. More than half her customers are from outside Milford.

She and Givens weren’t planning to open a second store, but then an inviting space that housed a book store opened up at 16 Broadway and being beach lovers — as well as fans of Milford — they made the move.

The store is smaller than the original and will carry lots of books on Milford, ornithology and the nautical, along with novels and other offerings.

Some are used, some signed by authors, some rare — like an early, leather-bound illustrated edition of “Moby Dick” — and some are new. And it’s the place to go for anything Milford because there are lots of familiar local titles and authors: “The Milford Cookbook,” “Sand in Our Shoes,” “Woodmont on the Sound,” “Murder at the Statue of Liberty,” and more.

“Milfordites are very proud of their community,” said Shaw, who was raised in the San Francisco area. “We’re not going to try to be everything to everyone.”

Community Development Director Robert Gregory, said the store is a great addition to the area.

“It fits in with our whole concept of an arts district and adds another creative mind to the beach group,” Gregory said.

Shaw will continue to spend most of her time in the downtown store, where the expertise she brings to her business is most-needed.

She has hired someone with a extensive knowledge of books to work the new store, which will open this weekend and at limited times to be announced until April 1, when hours will become regular.

Shaw stays busy, immersing herself in the Milford community and is on the board of the Downtown Milford Business Association, just off a term as president. .

“I used to read more before I had a bookstore,” she said.

This less complicated Collected Stories Bookstore also carries the special mark of Shaw’s and Givens’ 13-year-old son, James, a seventh-grader at East Shore Middle School. James loves birds, especially the word “kingfisher” — a kind of bird found in Milford — so they added it to the window sign with an image of the bird.

Shaw said owning a local bookstore, rather than commuting to the city and working day and night, means much more to her son, who never really cared if one of her company’s books got on the best-seller list.

Shaw said everything in the new store is inventoried, so if she’s sitting in the other store, she can locate a title. A lot of books are also moved over the Internet, she said. They’ve sold books from as far back as the mid-1700s.

It’s a fascinating business, she said, because the people she meets are so interesting, most with “incredible backgrounds.”

One wall of the store will be a big screen and she plans to hold informative events on many subjects, including those that may be of interest in Milford, whether about the piping plover, Charles Island or something else.

“At the end of the day the community will decide” what kind of books the store carries, Shaw said.