BTW News Briefs

Utah Drops Out of Streamlined Sales Tax Project

Last week, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that "Utah's long-leading role in marshaling states to adopt a 'streamlined' tax system" had "come to an abrupt end." On the final night of the legislative session, lawmakers repealed a significant provision of the state's streamlined sales tax law that would have "required companies to collect sales tax based on where a product was delivered" -- the result of which is that Utah will not be certified as a member of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project in the foreseeable future. Sen. Curt Bramble (R-Provo) told SLT that Utah's involvement in SSTP is on "indefinite hold."

Report Finds Retailers See Customer Centricity as Top Priority

The National Retail Federation recently released its latest "Customer Centricity Study," a survey conducted by Ogden Associates for the NRF Foundation. The study found that more and more retailers are utilizing customer data to improve marketing programs and merchandise offerings -- a fundamental yet often elusive goal of retailers' customer relationship management (CRM) programs. The study is based on a detailed survey of retailers that was conducted in December 2005.

The Customer Centricity Study found overwhelming support among retailers for strategies that improve the customer experience. Nearly 98 percent of the respondents said that improving the customer experience was important, while another 97 percent cited that increasing customer satisfaction was a priority. In pursuing these objectives, retailers have also made major progress in seeking and responding to direct input from customers by probing for better understanding of customers' lifestyles and life stages. The survey found that retailers are deploying a wide variety of techniques to build customer understanding including market and customer research, focus groups, store intercepts, supplier input, web statistics, third-party data, and Internet research.

Reflecting a major shift toward more strategic use of information, 67 percent of respondents this year said they used customer information for Merchandise Planning, up significantly from 42 percent of respondents in 2004. Retailers also see customer insight as important in developing marketing strategies (92 percent); advertising budgets (69 percent), catalogue targeting (67 percent), promotions (83 percent) and customer service (78 percent).

Paula Quint to Step Down as CBC President

On March 10, Paula Quint announced that she would be leaving the Children's Book Council later this spring. Quint joined the Council in 1966 and has served as its president and executive director since April 1992.

"Over the past several months the management and board of directors of the Children's Book Council have been engaged in a complete review of the Council's mission and operations," Quint said in a statement. "As plans for a refocused and streamlined CBC have emerged, and after 40 years at the Council, I have decided that it would be an appropriate moment for me to step aside to enable CBC to move forward under new leadership."

A search is under way for a new executive director. Quint will remain at CBC during a brief transition period.

Lambda Literary Foundation Announces Finalists

The Lambda Literary Foundation recently announced the finalists for the 18th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, celebrating achievements in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) literature for books published in 2005. Spanning 20 categories, the 100 finalists reflect a diverse range of distinguished voices from the LGBT community and highlight the full range of achievement in LGBT literature.

Seventy-two judges, representing a broad cross-section of the gay and lesbian literary community, will select a single book in each category to win the prestigious Lambda Literary Award. The recipients will be announced at a gala ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 18, on the eve of BookExpo America. Information about the awards ceremony will be announced at a later date, and questions can be addressed to [email protected].

The finalists in the categories of Gay Men's Fiction and Lesbian Fiction are:

Gay Men's Fiction
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper (Carroll & Graf)
German Officer's Boy by Harlan Greene (Wisconsin)
Faith for Beginners by Aaron Hamburger (Random House)
What We Do is Secret by Kief Hillsbery (Villard)
Acqua Calda by Keith McDermott (Carroll & Graf)

Lesbian Fiction
Babyji by Abha Dawesar (Anchor)
Wild Dogs by Helen Humphrys (Norton)
With or Without You by Lauren Sanders (Akashic)
Five Books of Moses Lapinsky by Karen Tulchinsky (Raincoast)
Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson (Harcourt)

The complete list of finalists is available on the awards page of the Lambda Literary Foundation website at www.lambdaliterary.org.