Shipping Soon: FREADOM Gift Cards

Booksellers who have placed orders for this year's FREADOM gift card and presenter, sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), will soon receive them. Orders are being shipped during the second week of September via FedEx Ground, so stores will receive the gift cards and presenters in plenty of time for Banned Books Week celebrations, from September 27 through October 4.

Shipping confirmations will be sent to stores via e-mail. Questions about the FREADOM cards should be directed to ABFFE President Chris Finan at chris@abffe.com or to ABA's Jill Perlstein or Linda Ford at aba@givex.com.

Booksellers planning to sell FREADOM cards from previous years can log onto http://jettdirect.com/aba to purchase additional presenters.

Sales of the FREADOM gift card support ABFFE's crucial work fighting censorship and supporting free expression. ABFFE has provided the cards for free to booksellers participating in the ABA Gift Card Program in return for a donation of 10 percent of the gift card sale and any amounts later added to the card. ABFFE covers the cost of the card, the matching presenter, and the 50-cents per card transaction fee.

Stores looking for display ideas and events to mark Banned Books Week need look no further than ABFFE's Banned Books Week Handbook, freely available at abffe.com. The handbook includes lists of banned and challenged books, great display ideas, and easy events, which are inexpensive to put together and sure to draw customer attention. Banned Books Week posters that can be downloaded and reproduced at a local copy shop for a nominal fee are also available.

For more information and other FREADOM products, visit abffe.com or contact Rebecca Zeidel at (212) 587-4025, ext. 13 or at rebecca@abffe.com. Bookstores and libraries are encouraged to share their Banned Books Week plans with the public by posting them to www.bannedbooksweek.org.