Bookstore Photos Sought for IBF Calendar

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the International Booksellers Federation (IBF), a non-governmental organization of booksellers associations and booksellers from around the world, is publishing a calendar featuring bookshops representing all IBF member countries. The two-year calendar, "50 Unique Bookshops -- 2007 & 2008," will be unveiled at a major event during the 2006 Frankfurt Book Fair.

As an IBF member, the American Booksellers Association is working with IBF to collect photographs from member bookstores in the U.S. for possible inclusion in the commemorative calendar. Selection of photos for the calendar will be made by IBF; however, ABA is facilitating their collection through the Bookstore Photo Gallery on BookWeb's Idea Exchange or via CD.

Eric Hardin, president of IBF, noted that the calendar will "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 [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."

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.