Registration fee waived for librarians attending Atlanta Book Show

Here’s good news for librarians looking to make their book purchase dollars go further in a time when the national economy is contracting and budgets are shrinking. When the Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS) comes to Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria Centre on August 1-2, librarians from around the country are invited to attend free. Normal admission is $50. The offer extends to librarians of all types - acquisition librarians, reference librarians, school media specialists, college and university librarians, special collections librarians and their supervisors.

Larry May, the

show organizer, said the offer is a way to repay librarians for the public service they provide in making books available to the public. “It’s our way of saying ‘thanks’ to the librarians for what they do,” he said. According to May, less than 10 percent of the books manufactured in the United States get sold at full suggested retail price. The rest are discounted. Remainders – the books that don’t sell out at retail or discounted prices, books that are usually in pristine condition – get sold for as little as 10 cents on the dollar at shows like GABBS.

About 31 percent of all books published in the U.S. are remaindered or repulped. That’s down from about 40 percent a few years ago, due to more effective inventory management by publishers. The Great American Bargain Book Show caters to buyers who purchase 25 or more copies of individual titles from dealers who specialize in remainders. Librarians and school media specialists will have an opportunity at this year’s GABBS to select from some 50,000 titles – including past Caldecott and Newbery children’s book award winners and a wide selection of classics – for far less than retail. According to May, they should easily be able to quadruple the number of books they could buy at retail with the same dollars.