Advocacy

In 1915, Boston booksellers were part of an anti-vice group that reviewed books with sexual content and dictated whether they were to be removed from bookstore shelves. In this first article in a series, ABFE Director Chris Finan looks at how booksellers moved from banning books to today’s celebration of Banned Books Week.

A study released this week by Good Jobs First, a national policy resource center for grassroots groups and public officials, found that large companies get the bulk of states’ economic development dollars.

Minimum Wage Roundup is a new BTW feature that will report on minimum wage stories from around the country in an effort to keep booksellers on top of developments in their local communities and states.

Booksellers have always enthusiastically supported Banned Books Week, and respondents to a recent survey on this year’s event shared several reasons for their strong support, as well as ideas for future celebrations.

On October 7, President Obama signed into law an amendment to the Affordable Care Act that leaves it up to states to determine whether businesses with 51–100 employees will be included in their small group markets in 2016.

The American Booksellers for Free Expression is asking booksellers to evaluate this year’s Banned Books Week by replying to a brief survey.

Media Coalition has created a foundation that offers individuals and other entities the opportunity to make tax-deductible contributions to help further its work protecting the public’s right to access the broadest possible range of information, opinion, and entertainment.

The Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act, a bill that amends the Affordable Care Act, has passed the U.S. House and Senate. If signed by the President, the legislation would give states the right to determine what size business constitutes a “small business.”

SBA offers EMV card webinar; Schumacher wins Thurber Prize; We Need Diverse Books to present first Walter Dean Myers Award; 23 publishers sign deals with IPG; National Book Foundation announces 2015 “5 under 35” honorees; 2015 Kirkus Prize finalists announced; NetGalley introduces “Wish Granting”; Edelweiss partners with DOGObooks; HarperCollins forms HarperCollins Italia 

ABA has sent a letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to request that independent booksellers be given an opportunity to help craft a solution that raises the state’s minimum wage based upon sound economic principles.

Starting October 1, Amazon and other online retailers with nexus in Michigan are required to collect and remit the state’s six percent sales tax.

Bookstores including Quail Ridge Books & Music, The Regulator Bookshop, and Left Bank Books are fostering community conversations about race and diversity by holding public forums, hosting book discussions, and engaging in activism.  

There will be an explosion of activity on social media when Banned Books Week launches this Sunday, September 27. To help get the ball rolling, the event’s sponsors have announced several ways in which everyone can use the Internet to promote the freedom to read.

In his latest column, ABFE Director Chris Finan discusses why ABA has filed an amicus brief in the latest ACLU challenge to an NSA surveillance program. Reader privacy is at stake.

Perseus Books Group back on the market; WNDB announces winner of first short story contest; Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition to honor Joyce Meskis