Worldwide Booksellers Group Seeks 50 Unique Bookshops for Anniversary Calendar

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the International Booksellers Federation (IBF), a non-governmental organization of booksellers associations and booksellers from around the world, has announced plans for the publication of a calendar featuring photographs of 50 bookshops in all IBF member countries. The two-year calendar, to be called 50 Unique Bookshops -- 2007 & 2008, will be presented at a major event during the 2006 Frankfurt Book Fair. The IBF is seeking unique bookstore photos and the goal of the calendar is to showcase the diversity in architecture, culture, and feel of bookshops from all over the world. ABA bookseller members are encouraged to submit photos for the calendar.

Eric Hardin, president of IBF, commented about the project to BTW in an e-mail, "I have dual American and French citizenship and am the owner of three independent bookshops in the Paris area. I am very excited about all the events the IBF is organizing to celebrate its 50th Anniversary and invite all full members, in particular my fellow citizens in the United States, to provide pictures of their unique bookshops."

Hardin continued, "Not only will the initiative be very rewarding for booksellers, but it will also provide a fantastic marketing tool for promoting the image of booksellers worldwide. We want to depict the full range of bookshops and so, the IBF Council, with the help of the EBF [European Booksellers Federation] Executive Committee, has decided that it would be quite wrong to classify some bookshops as better than others. Therefore, the only possible criterion is to select unique bookshops -- each country has its specificities, its culture, its tradition, and its architecture."

As a full IBF member organization, ABA is working with IBF to collect photographs from member bookstores in the U.S. for possible inclusion in the commemorative calendar. ABA will facilitate IBF's selection of American bookstores by announcing the call for photographs on the ABA Forum and in the March Red box, and submitting all photos to IBF either directly by postings to the Bookweb website, or on a CD. ABA does not have any role in the selection process.

According to Franoise Dubruille, director of EBF and IBF, digital photographs taken by amateurs are sufficient. Photos must be a high-resolution TIFF or JPG format; no compressed or zipped files will be accepted. Only two photos per bookstore can be submitted and can include exterior or interior shots.

Booksellers can either upload photos to the Bookstore Photo Gallery forum or mail a CD to IBF, c/o ABA, 200 White Plains Road, 6th floor, Tarrytown, NY 10591. Photos and CDs will not be returned. The deadline for all submissions is March 20, 2006.

For more information, contact ABA Marketing Director, Jill Perlstein at [email protected] or call (800) 637-0037, ext. 6642 for more information. --Nomi Schwartz