ABA Forum & Education Program Highlights 'Upbeat' PNBA Trade Show

The American Booksellers Association offered a Bookseller Forum and Education Program as part of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's (PNBA) Spring Trade Show, which ran from Monday, March 14 - Wednesday, March 16, at the Seattle Airport Hilton. ABA programming was featured as part of the Education Workshops on Monday.

Pat Rutledge, president of PNBA and co-owner of A Book for All Seasons in Leavenworth, Washington, said about the Spring Trade Show, "It was well-attended and seemed very busy. My general impression was that people were very pleased and there was a positive and upbeat atmosphere." Rutledge said that highlights included the extensive educational programming opportunities throughout the show.

ABA-sponsored events began on Monday, with "The 2% Solution," which was held from 9:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. From 11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. was ABA's ABACUS Workshop. At the request of PNBA, from 1:15 p.m. - 2:45 p.m., ABA held the session "Book Sense for Publishers & Authors," which reviewed the ways publishers and authors can participate in the Book Sense program.

Rutledge said that the ABACUS workshop, led by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, helped answer booksellers' questions about completing ABACUS survey. "Avin went through everything, question by question, line by line, and explained why everyone should complete the survey. He gave booksellers a tool to look at and compare their stores with other [similar] stores ... to see in which areas their spending was more or less than others. He took out the mystery and clarified things."

In the afternoon, ABA held the Bookseller Forum from 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., which was moderated by Domnitz and ABA COO Oren Teicher. Booksellers received an update on ABA programs and initiatives and discussed a number of issues, including the Patriot Act and the Book Sense Picks list.

During the forum, booksellers discussed at length the Freedom to Read Protection Act, legislation drafted to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act to protect the privacy of bookstore and library patrons. Tegan Tigani of Queen Anne Avenue Books in Seattle said that petitions for their customers to sign were distributed during the forum and that the discussion was "very informative and inspiring.... I did feel galvanized and ready to hit the streets to get people to sign the petition."

Will Peters of Annie Bloom's of Portland, Oregon, reported that, "Booksellers talked about the current Picks format. People like it as opposed to the old 76 list and like that the new list is changed monthly." Peters also noted that booksellers thought there weren't enough paperbacks on the list and agreed that they "needed to encourage each other to nominate more paperbacks."

Peters said that the show "went well" and was "lively" and that he discovered interesting new titles, including a short story collection, Gina Ochsner's People I Wanted to Be (Houghton Mifflin). Rutledge concurred with Peters' positive assessment. "It was a good show," she said. -- Karen Schechner