Book Sense and Free Expression Initiatives Take Center Stage at D.C. Forum

On Wednesday, February 25, in conjunction with the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), ABA held a Bookseller Forum in the The Lansburgh Building, next door to Olsson's Books & Records in downtown Washington, D.C. Among the key topics of the forum were the Book Sense Gift Card Program, the Book Sense 76, and the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP). The forum was led by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher, with ABA Vice President Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Coral Gables and Miami Beach.

"I thought the forum was very good," said attendee Jack Buckley of Ninth Street Books in Wilmington, Delaware. "We had a nice turnout."

"I thought the forum was very valuable," said Alicia Greene of Olsson's Books & Records. "And we met some new booksellers in our area, which is great since we don't have many opportunities to meet each other."

The half-day of programming began with a Book Sense Gift Card demonstration, noted Danny Gainsburg of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C. "I think they made a good case for the gift card," he said.

Buckley noted that he had been close to joining the gift card program before the past holiday season, but the demonstration "convinced me to do it."

Sarah Pishko of Prince Books in Norfolk, Virginia, also signed up for the Book Sense Gift Card Program at the forum. "I went ahead and just filled out the form," she said. "It was good -- they made it clear that it's easy to use…. I was planning to [join the program], anyway."

Following the gift card demonstration was an open forum to discuss any issues on booksellers' minds relating to ABA, Book Sense, and bookselling in general. One of the topics was the proposed changes to the Book Sense 76 list and how to get more people to send in recommendations, Gainsburg said. "I think people are in favor of the 76 changes as long as it sells books," he said.

"It's not that the Book Sense 76 hasn't been successful," said Ninth Street's Buckley, "but there's going to be some fine tuning…. Everybody seemed to think this was a good direction to go."

Regarding the proposed changes, Greene said, "I think our stores will be able to merchandise the titles more effectively. We also got some new ideas about how to get more blurbs from our staff members."

Another topic of discussion was the Campaign for Reader Privacy (www.readerprivacy.com/), a national petition drive that looks to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. "There was a quick discussion on the petition campaign and [Domnitz and Teicher] gave their take on how many signatures have been collected," Buckley said. "I think everybody there was already [participating in the campaign]."

Overall, "I felt [the forum] was very useful," Pishko said. "It is good to touch base with other people and with ABA." --David Grogan