Economic conditions of their customers and the value of exhibiting were top on the minds of exhibitors at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, Calif., last week. Official attendance figures were strong (over 6,000), even with competition from the upcoming Public Library Association meeting in Seattle in March.

Despite stories of funding disasters for some public libraries (Seattle Public closed for a week in August and again in December, in response to budget cuts), wholesalers were cautiously optimistic. George Coe, president, Baker & Taylor Institutional, said, "In terms of nationwide reductions, this is the worst I've seen in 25 years. Libraries seem to be recovering, but slowly. While there are some disaster stories, they are evened out by successes. In some areas, bond referenda are bringing in new money. Many libraries have capital money and are building new facilities." (Library Journal reports that 195 new or renovated public libraries and 31 academic libraries were completed in fiscal year 2002/ 2003.)

Coe estimates that wholesalers have seen overall reductions of 5% to 10%, but that is being made up by increased spending on services, such as cataloguing and processing. In this area, he said, B&T has seen increases of 30% over the last 18 months. Spanish language is another area in which he sees growth: "Communities that never had to supply Spanish-language collections before are suddenly seeing a need."

Matt Nauman, director of marketing and publisher relations for Blackwell North America, a major distributor to academic libraries, said that sales were "well ahead" of last year, but that the last two years have been "pretty poor." Three years ago, the company had its "biggest year of all time." He said the improvement is the result of universities redirecting their money and of funds held back last year being released in 2003. Also, the company has reached out to smaller colleges and is adding online products to the mix.

Marie Robertson, v-p, technical services, for Book Wholesalers Inc., a distributor of children's books to libraries, said she senses "a greater confidence," and that libraries have done a "great job of marketing themselves to their communities over the last 10 years. As a result, communities recognize their value and don't want to lose those services."

Vendor Unrest/ALA Response

Although many vendors attested that they had good meetings with customers, foot traffic on the floor was generally very slow. A major competitor for librarians' time is the active calendar of meetings (many time slots featured more than 70 concurrent events).

At the Exhibitors Roundtable, several vendors told ALA representatives that unless ALA figures out how to build "no-conflict time" into the schedule, they may not return.

In what Deirdre Ross, director, ALA Conference Services, called a "major step forward," the ALA Executive Board agreed to include three "no or low-conflict times" on the schedule, one for each day the exhibits are open. Ross said the board "realized the seriousness of the situation" and wanted to address the concerns as soon as possible.

One attempt to draw more people to the show floor may have backfired. A Friday night opening of the exhibits followed the "Best Selling Authors Forum," which featured Dr. Bertice Berry (Jim & Louella's Homemade Heart-Fix Remedy) and Ángeles Mastretta (Women with Big Eyes). During the opening, the aisles were jammed, but many vendors felt that the librarians came, ate the free food, grabbed the freebies and never returned.

Marcia Purcell, director of library promotion for Random House Trade Group, said she found the Friday night opening effective. During that time, RH had a two-hour book signing for Berry. She also found the new Adult Literature Spotlight to be a good draw. For two hours on Saturday, adult authors signed books and publishers gave away free galleys. Purcell said signings in the Random booth went on for three hours, and gave the authors an opportunity to connect with librarians. The Random House booth was full most of the show, Purcell said. "You can't expect people to come just because you happen to have a booth. You have to give them a reason to come—have signings, give away books."