ABA Launches Redesigned Trade Website Featuring New Interactive Services

The American Booksellers Association announced the official launch of its completely redesigned and enhanced trade website, BookWeb.org, on Friday, June 1. The new site offers users greatly improved navigation and content organization, a new Booksellers' Wiki and blog, and a fully redesigned online Book Buyer's Handbook, the definitive guide to vendor's trade terms.

"When we went online with our trade website in the mid-1990s, we believed that it would become an essential resource for member booksellers, and it has," said ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz. "But we realized it was now time to fully update the site, and to add important functionality that has become available since then. We believe the new BookWeb.org will become an even more important tool for our members' successful bookstore operations, and hope booksellers will set it as their homepage, so ABA news and tools are always available. "

The new BookWeb.org gives members access to a wealth of information about ABA initiatives and services, including those in education, advocacy, and the Book Sense marketing program. It also offers access to the association's newsletter, Bookselling This Week; a wide range of resources on free speech and legislative issues; and links to regional trade associations, shop local initiatives, and other book-related groups.

The new site is also the home of ABA's new blog, "Omnibus," a regular update on bookselling, authors, and issues related to retail and technology, among other topics. A Booksellers' Wiki has been added to the site by ABA in hopes that it will develop into a valued source of bookselling information, generated by users.

Long a staple resource for booksellers, the Book Buyer's Handbook has several new features that allow booksellers to customize the database, including the ability to add user's notes and to create their own "hot list" of vendors.

"All in all, this is a very significant launch for us," said Dan Cullen, the director of ABA's Information Department, "a project that, quite literally, everyone at ABA has contributed to. But this is really more of a beginning than a completion--for we will be continually adding content to the site and will be working to make the user's experience on BookWeb.org richer and easier."

ABA's technology partner in the launch was Objective Consulting, Inc. (OCI), an Internet consulting and software development company headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. Founded in 1993, and headed by President Gene W. Homicki, the OCI team worked with ABA on the launch of the original BookWeb.org, developing the online Book Buyer's Handbook project, the improved electronic reporting options for the Book Sense Bestseller lists, and enhanced printing options for ABA's newsletter, Bookselling This Week.