Georgia librarians invited to attend Spring Book Show free, take tour

ATLANTA, Ga, USA (SANEPR.com) March 17, 2008 -- Here’s good news for Georgia educators and librarians looking to make their book purchase dollars go further.
The Spring Book Show, the largest bargain book show in the country, is held annually in Atlanta, and when the show comes to town this year on March 28-30 at the Georgia World Congress Center, state educators and librarians will once again be permitted 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.
According to Larry May, the show organizer, 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.
The Spring Book Show caters to buyers who purchase 25 or more copies of individual titles from dealers who specialize in remainders. School media specialists, librarians, school superintendents and principals and other public employees who purchase books in quantity will have an opportunity at this year’s show to select from more than 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.
Because the show can be overwhelming to first-time attendees, show organizer May of Knoxville, Tenn., has arranged a guided tour of the show for librarians. The tour will be held early on Friday afternoon, March 28.
“Any educator in the State of Georgia can come to the show for free - we will gladly waive the registration fee,” May said. “I want to extend a personal invitation for the Georgia educators and librarians to register for the show at www.springbookshow.com.”
May pointed out that, because the show is held over a weekend, attending will not interfere with the normal weekday responsibilities of the educators and librarians attending. He emphasized that remainder dealers from around the country will be offering a huge selection of titles at deep-discount prices.