Technology

12 Apr

Louisville Forum Offers Booksellers Entre to Digital Revolution

On Tuesday, April 10, the American Booksellers Association held a Booksellers Forum and Education Program in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA) and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) at the Louisville Marriott Downtown, home of ABA's 2008 Winter Institute) in Louisville, Kentucky.

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05 Apr

Five New Publishers and Eight Indies on The Caravan

This week, The Caravan Project announced the addition of five nonprofit publishers to the unique partnership offering serious nonfiction readers a menu of formats, both print and digital, from which to choose how they read a book. The five -- Columbia University Press, Harvard University Press, Kent State Press, University of Michigan Press, and the University of Minnesota Press -- will join the seven founding publishers in contributing books to Caravan's fall 2007 list.

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21 Feb

WiFi Hotspots Draw the Right Demographic to Independent Bookstores

All retailers, regardless of their product mix, share many of the same challenges -- not the least of which is driving traffic to their stores. As more consumers begin to use the Web via wireless connections, booksellers are hoping to attract more customers by offering wireless Internet access -- aka "WiFi hotspots" -- in their stores. And based on reports from a number of booksellers, the strategy is working.

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31 Jan

Net Neutrality: Senators Look to Stave Off Internet Inequity

With a new, Democrat-controlled Congress in session, two Senators are hoping that their "net neutrality" bill will now gain some traction. Earlier this month, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, legislation that looks to ensure that companies using the Internet to connect to consumers can compete on a level playing field.

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18 Jan

ABA's New Digital Task Force Has First Meeting

On Wednesday, January 10, ABA's new Digital Task Force (DTF) held its first meeting at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, in Brooklyn, New York.

The DTF is composed of 10 booksellers and industry professionals and five ABA staff members, and it is charged with looking at the myriad technical changes affecting the world of consumer book consumption, from the digitization of content to the burgeoning world of online social networking. The goal of the DTF will be to help advise ABA on devising strategies to address these issues.

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17 Jan

BookSense.com On the Move...

In this first On the Move of the New Year, BookSense.com presents a report on website sales during the holiday season, improvements to inventory upload features, ISBN-13 compatibility, digital content, a new content management system, and more.

Holiday Sales

BookSense.com announced that participants saw a double-digit increase in orders placed during the 2006 holiday selling season and that aggregate sales are up once again.

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14 Dec

ISBN-13 to Affect Publishers' Direct Electronic Ordering Options

At the end of November, Pubnet unveiled Instant Response, a program that gives booksellers immediate acknowledgement for purchase orders placed with participating publishers. Instant Response was also introduced as an alternative to direct electronic order (DEO) dial-up systems, which some publishers will be phasing out after the introduction of ISBN-13 in January 2007.

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14 Dec

The Power of "We": ABA President Russ Lawrence on Harnessing the Collective Smarts of Booksellers

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07 Dec

BookSense.com Inks Deal to Offer Ebooks

The American Booksellers Association has signed an agreement with Ingram Digital Ventures that will enable bookstores participating in the BookSense.com program to sell ebooks in three formats -- Palm, Adobe, and Microsoft -- beginning sometime in 2007.

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30 Nov

Pubnet Announces Alternative to Publishers' Direct Electronic Dial-Up Ordering Systems

Pubnet, an electronic ordering option for booksellers from Bowker, has announced the introduction of Instant Response, a program that gives booksellers immediate acknowledgement for purchase orders placed with participating publishers. In addition, Instant Response is designed to serve as an alternative to a publisher's direct electronic dial-up ordering system. According to Pubnet, it is anticipated that some publishers will be phasing out such systems after the introduction of ISBN-13 in January 2007.

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26 Oct

Confidential Sales Data Demonstrates Indie Influence

If data is the name of the game, it's crucial that independent bookstores make sure they are represented in the starting lineup. One of the best ways for ABA member stores to do so is by facilitating the collection of independent bookstore sales data via confidential reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller List.

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27 Jul

U.S. Publishers Learn About batch.co.uk

Last week, in a series of meetings arranged by the American Booksellers Association, U.S. publishers and wholesalers had the opportunity to learn about batch.co.uk, a service of the Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland, that is designed to help reduce overhead in the supply chain by providing a single, consolidated payment solution.

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26 Jun

ISBN-13 Update: Erroneous Bar Codes

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) recently announced that it had received several reports of books carrying a Bookland EAN bar code with an erroneous number encoded in the bar code and displayed below the bar code itself. "The erroneous number begins with '979', an invalid prefix for today's Bookland EAN and an ISBN range not yet activated by International or National ISBN Agencies," said the BISG statement. "The erroneous number is unlikely to be recognized by the computer systems of many booksellers who are not yet prepared for ISBN-13.

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About ABA

The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

Independent bookstores act as community anchors; they serve a unique role in promoting the open exchange of ideas, enriching the cultural life of communities, and creating economically vibrant neighborhoods.

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