Industry News

In just the past week, two distributors, Koen Book Distributors and Alamo Square Distributors, have announced their decisions to end operations. And earlier this week, Alamo's founder announced he would be opening ASP Wholesale, a division of Alamo Square Press.

In 2001, Visa USA began instituting its Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP) in an effort to protect Visa cardholder data, wherever it resides, "ensuring that members, merchants, and service providers maintain the highest information security standard." To comply with CISP, Visa created a set of requirements that retailers, card processors, and POS vendors have to meet in order to properly secure the data embedded on each customer's Visa Card.

The 2005 New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) Fall Trade Show will be held on Friday, September 16, through Sunday, September 18, in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Those booksellers who are Book Sense Gift Card Program participants, or are thinking about joining the popular program, should note that four POS vendors currently offer an interface to support full access to the Book Sense Gift Card Program.

The vendors that are fully certified to process Book Sense Gift Cards are:

ABA member booksellers who encourage their customers to vote in the Quills Awards through a store promotion are invited to participate in a random drawing to win a trip to the red carpet awards ceremony to be held in October in New York City. To be eligible for the drawing, booksellers must send ABA proof of their Quills Awards voting promotion.

Book TV is hitting the road. On Saturday, September 24, C-SPAN2's Book TV Bus will kick off its debut tour at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. (http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/). From there, the Book TV Bus will head out to visit book festivals, local libraries, and bookstores in conjunction with local cable affiliates, which air the programming.

Haights Cross Communications, Inc. Sells Chelsea House to Facts on File

On August 11, White Plains, NY-based Haights Cross Communications, Inc., announced that it had sold its Chelsea House business, effective August 9, 2005, to Facts on File, Inc. Chelsea House will be reported as a discontinued operation beginning in the third quarter ended September 30, 2005. According to Publisher's Weekly, Haights decided to sell due to weakness in the library market. The deal was worth about $9 million, PW reported.

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) recently announced the release of their latest newsletter for Get Caught Reading, the Association of American Publisher's campaign to promote the joy of reading, now beginning its seventh year.

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG), in partnership with ABA and Book Hunter Press, is conducting a major study of the market for used books. The goal of the study is to provide the most extensive and accurate analysis of the used book market to date.

In the next week, booksellers should expect to receive an e-mail asking them to participate in the study. Look for more information in an upcoming issue of Bookselling This Week.

Building on the success of this year's educational offerings, ABA is now planning its education program for 2006. To create a program that truly meets the needs of the membership, the association is asking booksellers for their input through an online education survey, accessible through the BookWeb homepage or directly at www.bookweb.org/read/7981.

ABA and its co-sponsors in the Campaign for Reader Privacy -- the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center -- today warned that final action on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act could come only days after Congress returns from its August recess.

With all appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court having been denied or having expired, the Visa Check/MasterMoney antitrust class action lawsuit is now finalized. Claim forms will be sent to the millions of merchants who are members of the Class by the end of September. Any bookstore that accepted Visa and MasterCard debit cards between October 25, 1992, and July 31, 2003, is automatically included in the Class.

Once a claim form is received, a merchant has 60 days to respond. However, merchants who wish to challenge the settlement must do so within 30 days.

With House and Senate conferees scheduled to meet in the fall to reconcile their two very different bills regarding Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, on Monday, August 8, Reps. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), C.L. "Butch" Otter (R-ID), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ron Paul (R-TX), and Tom Udall (D-CO) urged House colleagues to encourage House conferees to resist attempts to weaken the safeguards for reader privacy in S. 1389.

BookExpo America is asking book industry professionals to weigh in on locations for future shows. To date, BEA's schedule is set for the next three years: Washington, D.C. in 2006 (May 18 - 21); New York City in 2007 (May 31 - June 3); and Los Angeles in 2008 (May 29 - June 1).

The 2005 Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA) Fall Trade Show will be held from Thursday, September 15, through Sunday, September 18, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the M.C. Benton, Jr. Convention and Civic Center.