BTW News Briefs

Seen on the NCIBA Trade Show Floor

ABA CEO Oren Teicher chats with Ruth Liebmann, Random House vice president, director of field sales and merchandising; and Linda Grana, manager of the Lafayette Book Store in Lafayette, California.

At last weekend's Northern California Independent Booksellers Association trade show, booksellers were invited to stop by ABA's tables on the show floor to chat with ABA CEO Oren Teicher and COO Len Vlahos about the association's programs and services, as well as anything else that was on their minds. ABA members who dropped off a business card earned an extra chance at winning one of more than two-dozen publisher-sponsored scholarships to the Fifth Annual Winter Institute, to be held at the Doubletree San Jose in San Jose, California, from February 3 - 5, 2010.

New England Children's Bookselling Advisory Council Publishes Fall Reviews

The New England Children's Bookselling Advisory Council has published its Fall Reviews and Fall Top Ten list online at necba.net. The Fall Reviews aim "to identify as many high-quality titles as possible from among the many July - December middle-grade and young-adult fiction releases." From these, NECBA said, "a Top Ten list has been selected as a service to our general bookstore colleagues who are less familiar with the genre."

GLIBA Installs New Directors & Officers

At the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association meeting on Thursday, October 1, before the fall trade show, Sally Bulthuis of Pooh's Corner in Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the group's president and three new directors joined the GLIBA Board:

• John Mesjak, Abraham Associates, Sycamore, Illinois
• Roberta Rubin, The Book Stall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka, Illinois
• Anne Storan, Paragraphs, Mt. Vernon, Ohio

Senate Committee Approves Health Care Bill (Hear It for Yourself)

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved a version of health care reform by a vote of 14 - 9, which means the bill is cleared to merge with another committee's bill for a vote by the full Senate, as reported by the Denver Business Journal.

The nonpartisan website Hearthebill.org now offers an audio version of the Senate's "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009," as well as the House version of health care reform. The site was created by voice actors Kathleen Keesling of Colorado and Diane Havens of New Jersey as a public service for the visually impaired and those who prefer audio to text. The files are available for free download or streaming audio on the site. The text is also available on the site for those who'd like to read it, or read along. However, to listen to the bills in their entirety would take nearly 17 hours.

SBA Launches Online Training Course for Women Entrepreneurs

Women who own small businesses will be able to use a new online U.S. Small Business Administration training course to learn how to identify and take advantage of federal contracting opportunities. The new training course, Winning Federal Contracts: A Guide for Women Entrepreneurs, is part of an ongoing government-wide initiative to promote opportunities for women-owned businesses in the area of government contracting. The Winning Federal Contracts course is available on SBA's website at www.sba.gov or directly at www.sba.gov/fedcontractingtraining.

This free online tutorial walks a woman-owned small business through the contracting process. In a release, SBA said it "is committed to ensuring that women-owned businesses receive at least 5 percent of federal contracts and believes better training opportunities are central to meeting this government-wide goal."

Library of Congress & Ad Council Create New PSAs to Promote Reading

On October 13, the Library of Congress and the Advertising Council launched a national public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to encourage children and adults to become engaged in reading and all other forms of literacy. The new PSAs -- aimed to reach children in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades and their parents -- focus on engaging children in all forms of literacy, whether it is reading a book or magazine, studying history, visiting a museum, or simply using their imagination. The TV, radio, online, and outdoor PSAs were developed in collaboration with the Ad Council and feature characters from the new film Disney's A Christmas Carol. Additionally, a series of radio PSAs were created pro bono by BYU Ad Lab.

All of the PSAs direct children and parents to visit the Library of Congress' newly redesigned website, read.gov, which includes links to a companion educational center at www.thencbla.org with resources and activities for teachers, parents, and students. Also launching is "The Exquisite Corpse," an exclusive online storytelling journal written and illustrated by a cast of award-winning authors and illustrators. Over the next year, a new chapter will be posted every two weeks.

U of Nebraska Press Pairs With Lightning Source on Title by Nobel Winner

The University of Nebraska Press announced this week that it had selected Lightning Source Inc. to bring Herta Mueller's 2009 Nobel Laureate title Nadirs to market. "The University of Nebraska Press prides itself on both the literary prowess of our book list, and making those titles on our list available to the broadest global audience," said Rhonda Winchell, sales and marketing manager, the University of Nebraska Press, in a statement. "After the recent 2009 Nobel Prize in literature announcement, the demand for Nadirs skyrocketed, and our press had only a small amount of inventory."

At Frankfurt Book Fair this week, the University of Nebraska Press will exhibit copies of Nadirs, through its European distributor, Combined Academic Publishers, and at the Ingram booth.

Lonely Planet Names New Leadership in U.S.

On October 13, Lonely Planet announced the appointment of John Boris as new executive vice president, Lonely Planet, and managing director, Lonely Planet Americas. Reporting to Matt Goldberg, Lonely Planet CEO, Boris, who will be based in Oakland, is charged with transforming the U.S. business to grow market share in Lonely Planet's core print business, while establishing Lonely Planet as a strong contender in the digital market, and continuing to expand the company's global solutions offering.

Boris joins Lonely Planet from Zagat Survey, where he was the senior vice president of marketing and interactive, responsible for the marketing, promotions, and development of Zagat lines of business including retail, corporate, online, and mobile.

David Unowsky Leaves Magers & Quinn

David Unowsky is no longer employed at Magers and Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis where he served as events manager. Unowsky, founder of Hungry Mind Bookstore and Hungry Mind Review, can be reached at david.unowsky@gmail.com or at (612) 845-5537.