BookSense.com technical staff will be performing planned maintenance on the site this Sunday, October 9, from 6:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern Time. For at least part of this time, and possibly all of it, BookSense.com stores and their customers will be unable to access store websites. Administrative pages will also be inaccessible.

A letter from Chris Morrow of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont, followed by letters from other local independent booksellers, recently convinced Vermont Public Radio (VPR) to remove a link to Amazon.com from its website, www.vpr.net/, and to replace it with one to BookSense.com.

BookSense.com's servers are being moved this Friday, June 10. Customers attempting to access BookSense.com websites during the move will see a "We're Down for Maintenance" page.

Booksellers' websites and admin pages will be inaccessible beginning at approximately 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, June 10. Access is expected to be restored by midday on Saturday, June 11, but it is possible that it may take the entire weekend to deal with unforeseen events.

There is still time for teams of booksellers to sign up for the BookSense.com/American Heritage Dictionaries Spelling Bee at BookExpo America. The event, to be held from 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 4, in Room 1B 02-03-04 of the Javits Center, will be hosted by acclaimed author Myla Goldberg, whose novel Bee Season (Anchor) was a Book Sense Book of the Year finalist in 2001.

BookSense.com websites will be down from 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, June 10, through Saturday evening, June 11. Customers will be presented with a "Down for Maintenance" page during this time, when BookSense.com will be moving its servers to a new location. Normal service will be restored by Sunday, June 12.

BookSense.com reminds booksellers that websites will be down from 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, June 10, through Saturday evening, June 11. Customers will be presented with a "Down for Maintenance" page during this time, when the BookSense.com servers will be moved to a new location. Normal service will be restored by Sunday, June 12. The server move is being undertaken to facilitate maintenance and to control costs.

Here's a look at some exciting news about participating BookSense.com member websites:

Perpetrators of fraudulent order schemes are increasingly sophisticated, as evidenced by the frequency and variety of scams reported by ABA member bookstores. Unfortunately there is no hard and fast rule for identifying a fraudulent order, but booksellers are being urged to err on the side of caution and to train all staff to beware of the variety of schemes.

Here's a look at some exciting new improvements to participating BookSense.com member websites: