About ABA

On Sunday and Monday, January 11 - 12, ABA's Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) met with representatives of the ABA Board and senior staff in Miami, Florida, to offer the association guidance on a number of issues important to independent booksellers.

The BAC is composed of 25 members and represents a broad cross-section of views from within the community of independent booksellers. For a complete list of BAC members, click here.

Topics discussed at the two days of meetings included:

The American Booksellers Association continued its 2004 Booksellers Forum schedule on Thursday, January 15, in Chicago, where ABA staff met with booksellers in the Great Lakes region. The ABA Booksellers Forum, held in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, was hosted at the Allerton Crowne Plaza, the Hotel ABA/Chicago for BookExpo America (BEA) 2004.

In early January, ABA launched a petition campaign to gather signatures of bookstore customers who support amending Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which stripped away protections for customer privacy. The goal is to garner at least one million signatures.

"We are very pleased by the enthusiastic response that has greeted the launch of our petition campaign," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "We hope all members of ABA will seriously consider participating."

The American Booksellers Association kicked off its 2004 Booksellers Forum schedule on Friday, January 9, in Tampa, Florida, with a gathering of booksellers from the Southeast Booksellers Association region. The forum, at the Hillsborough County Public Library, was the first of 16 scheduled over the next four months in various locations around the country. (For a complete forum schedule, click here.)

ABA has announced that it is in the process of updating the Bookstore Source Guide, a comprehensive listing of over 1,100 nonbook vendors. It is expected that the Guide will be back online at BookWeb.org in early March with a new name, more categories, and a user-friendly design.

Booksellers at ABA member bookstores are voting to choose the best Book Sense 76 titles of the past five years and, in the process, are entering a contest to win the grand prize of five nights' accommodations and admission to BookExpo America for the next five years or one of four first place prizes to be announced. Participation is open to owners and employees of all ABA member bookstores.

This season's second ABA Booksellers Forum held in conjunction with the Southeast Booksellers Association will take place on Wednesday, January 28, at McIntyre's Fine Books at Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, North Carolina (near Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill). Representing ABA at the forum will be CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher.

In this letter to booksellers, ABA President Ann Christophersen talks about the association's plans to mark the fifth birthday of Book Sense, including a special project to select the best Book Sense 76 titles published during the past five years, a new look for the 76 lists, and changes in White Box mailing procedures.

January 5, 2004

Dear Fellow Booksellers,

Happy New Year!

As part of this year's celebrations of Book Sense at Five, ABA is asking booksellers to help select the best Book Sense 76 titles published during the past five years. Participation is open to all employees of ABA member bookstores, and all participants in the selection process will be entered into a Bookseller Contest with prizes for five booksellers. The grand prize will be free admission and housing at BookExpo America for the next five years.

While booksellers and librarians have taken a leading, and crucial, role in efforts to restore the protections for customer privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act, ABA now wants bookstores to call on customers to lend a hand to the cause, too -- literally.

ABA's Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) will be meeting with representatives of the ABA Board and senior staff in Miami, Florida, on Sunday and Monday, January 11 - 12, to offer the association guidance on a number of issues important to independent booksellers. The BAC is composed of 25 members and represents a broad cross-section of views from within the community of independent booksellers.

ABA Board members and senior staff will be in Chicago on Thursday, January 15, to meet with booksellers in the Great Lakes region. The ABA Booksellers Forum, held in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, will convene at the Allerton Crowne Plaza, the Hotel ABA/Chicago for BookExpo America 2004, located at 701 North Michigan Avenue (corner of Michigan & Huron).

Booksellers in the Southeast will have two opportunities in January to meet with representatives of the ABA Board and senior staff to discuss issues of concern and share ideas, as well as get an update on the association's past activities and influence future plans. ABA's first forum of 2004 will be held on Friday, January 9, at the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa, Florida.

There will be no issue of Bookselling This Week during the week of December 22; however, the Book Sense Bestseller List will be compiled and e-mailed to booksellers as usual on Tuesday, December 23. In addition, the list in PDF format will be posted to the Web at www.bookweb.org/booksense/bestsellers/ either late Tuesday or early Wednesday, December 24. Booksellers will receive an e-mail from ABA when posting of the Bestseller List to BookWeb is complete.

This week, ABA sent e-mail invitations to booksellers in the Southeast and Great Lakes regions (including booksellers in Wisconsin) to attend the first two ABA Booksellers Forums of 2004. In conjunction with the Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA), ABA will hold the first forum of the winter season on Friday, January 9, at the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa, Florida.