About ABA

ABA is encouraging booksellers to check out the new forum software on the Idea Exchange section of BookWeb.org. Launched just last week, the new Idea Exchange was developed in response to booksellers' requests for more user-friendly forums, which provide flexibility and where booksellers can prioritize and search for topics of interest.

The virtual community of independent booksellers received a boost on Thursday, November 4, with ABA's launch of new forum software on the Idea Exchange section of BookWeb.org. The new, improved forum software was developed in response to booksellers' requests for more user-friendly forums, which provide flexibility and where booksellers can prioritize and search for topics of interest. Access to the forums is open to all ABA bookstore and provisional members and provides them with a valuable professional development tool.

Due to overall increased consumer demand for electronic gift cards and the continued growing popularity of Book Sense Gift Cards in particular, the American Booksellers Association is announcing the discontinuation of the Book Sense Paper Gift Certificate Program.

To ensure a smooth ending for the program, please note the following:

The American Booksellers Association's Education Task Force will meet on Saturday, November 13, in Minneapolis to consider the results of the "ABA Education 2005 Survey." The survey to gather bookseller input to help guide ABA's future educational programming was distributed over the last few months to ABA member booksellers by e-mail, through BookW

ABA will be joining members of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) at the regional's fall trade show to be held on Sunday, October 24, and Monday, October 25, at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As part of the full day of educational programming on Sunday, from 2:00 p.m.

To provide independent professional booksellers with access to the education, information, and business services they need to succeed in a changing world, which is the number-one goal of ABA's Strategic Plan, the association has been seeking bookseller input regarding future educational programming through responses to ABA's "Education 2005 Survey."

The theme of this year's Great Lakes Booksellers Association fall trade show was "Making It on Main Street," and the GLBA plenary session on Sunday, October 10, focused on building local alliances to strengthen Main Street businesses.

Some of the thousands of petitions collected by ABA-member booksellers.

On Wednesday, September 29, the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP) petition drive culminated with a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as representatives of the four sponsor

The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) and Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA) fall trade shows will be held from Friday, October 1 - Sunday, October 3, in Oakland, California, and St. Paul, Minnesota, respectively.

A slide presentation from the session "Identify Competition & Self-Evaluation: A Method to Conduct the Analysis," presented by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz at September's Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association trade show, is now available to ABA bookstore members online in the Professional Development section of BookWeb.org or by clicking here.

The American Booksellers Association's Board of Directors and senior staff met from Sunday, September 19, through Tuesday, September 21, in Denver.

During the meeting the ABA Board:

The Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) Fall Trade Show is being held from Thursday, September 16, through Sunday, September 19, at the Marriott Denver Tech Center in Denver, and ABA hopes booksellers will stop by the ABA booth on the trade show floor to learn about the Book Sense Gift Card Program and to share their thoughts on the direction of future ABA educational programming. In addition to its presence on the trade show floor, ABA is offering three educational sessions at the show on Friday, September 17:

This past weekend, ABA completed software programming to integrate its new association membership database with the BookWeb.org and Book Buyer's Handbook Web sites. These changes have created the need for members to re-enter their user names and passwords to gain access to members-only sections of the sites.