[3]Event and hotel registrations for the American Booksellers Association's Third Annual Winter Institute [3] (Wi3) are currently booked to capacity. Wi3, in Louisville, Kentucky, from Thursday, January 24, through Sunday, January 27, 2008, is open exclusively to the owners and staff of ABA member bookstores and capped at 500 registrants. Booksellers who register for the ABA education program [4] now are being put on a waiting list. As cancellations are received, spaces will be filled from the list on a first-come, first-served basis.

ABA is asking registered booksellers who are no longer planning to attend the Winter Institute to contact Program Assistant Margaret Nafz at [email protected] [5] as soon as possible to cancel both their event and hotel reservations, so that waiting booksellers can fill their places. Although hotel reservations were made directly with the Louisville Marriott Downtown, ABA is requesting booksellers notify the association of their desire to cancel so their rooms will remain in the Wi3 block and can be assigned to another bookseller.

Booksellers registered for the education program who have not yet reserved a room at the Louisville Marriott Downtown should contact Nafz to have their names put on a waiting list. In the meantime, ABA suggests booking a room at another hotel as a back up. If rooms at the event hotel become available, ABA will notify booksellers in order of their position on the list. A number of hotels [6] are within blocks of the Louisville Marriott Downtown. (ABA reminds booksellers to read the hotel's cancellation policy carefully before booking a room. No special rates have been negotiated with these hotels.)

Questions about the Winter Institute program should be addressed to ABA Education Director Len Vlahos at [email protected] [7]; questions about registration should be addressed to Nafz [5].