ABFFE Offers Free Bookseller Training Guide

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has released a new free training guide to help booksellers respond to free speech problems frequently encountered in bookstores. The guide is designed for use in conjunction with the video Scenes From a Bookstore: Free Speech Vignettes, which was screened for booksellers at BookExpo America 2008. Using humor, the video demonstrates both good and bad ways to address free speech problems, including complaints about materials in the bookstore or, sometimes, what's not in the bookstore and concerns about protecting customer privacy.

"Free speech problems occur in bookstores without warning," said ABFFE President Chris Finan. "Our training guide is designed to help booksellers be ready for them."

The ABFFE video, which was filmed at Skylight Books in Los Angeles, is based on a script written by Matt Miller of the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver and Kerry Slattery of Skylight Books. Most of the cast in the video are staff members at Skylight.

The training guide and a DVD of Scenes from a Bookstore are available free of charge to members of ABFFE and the American Booksellers Association. To order, contact Rebecca Zeidel at info@abffe.com or (212) 587-4025, ext. 13. They are also available online at www.abffe.com/dvdguide.htm.