The British Book Awards unveiled the regional and country winners for the 2022 Independent Bookshop of the Year Award. Sponsored by Gardners and supported by the Booksellers Association, the prize "celebrates nine inspiring bookshops, selected from a list of 63 finalists, which have continued to support their local communities during the past two turbulent years," the Bookseller reported.
The country and regional winners are Bookbugs and Dragon Tales, Norwich (East of England), O'Mahony's, Limerick (Island of Ireland), Burley Fisher Books, Haggerston (London), Wonderland Bookshop, Retford (Midlands), Forum Books, Corbridge (North England), The Edinburgh Bookshop, Edinburgh (Scotland), The Haslemere Bookshop, Haslemere (South East England), The Bookery, Crediton (South West England) and Book-ish, Crickhowell (Wales).
These nine bookshops are now in contention for the overall Independent Bookshop of the Year Award, announced at the BBA ceremony in London on May 23. The overall Independent Bookshop of the Year winner will also compete to be crowned Book Retailer of the Year.
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Analyzing preliminary sales figures from 2021, the European & International Booksellers Federation took a closer look at four bookselling markets in the northern Europe where bookselling has been heavily impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. EIBF reported that in 2020 many booksellers "were forced to temporarily close their shops and, as a result, their sales numbers plummeted. Many countries continued to impose anti-pandemic measures and restrictions in 2021, which resulted in significant challenges for the international bookselling markets. The bookselling community has had to adapt to new conditions."
Focusing on Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, EIBF wrote that "booksellers in all these countries have been to some extent affected by lockdowns in form of closures of 'non-essential' shops or closures of public spaces of any kind. There were also other restrictions and factors in place that could have prevented customers from visiting physical bookshops in the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic."
With many countries gradually lifting most of the pandemic restrictions and measures, further closures of "non-essential" businesses, including bookshops, seem unlikely at this stage, EIBF wrote. "Following the new reading consumptions habit introduced by the pandemic, it can be assumed that the popularity of digital book formats will continue to grow. Booksellers now have the opportunity to fully integrate these sales channels into their daily business model and develop new customer bases. Nevertheless, bookshops thrive on active engagement within communities and booksellers are keen to re-establish the connection with physical customers in the months ahead."
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As New Zealand celebrated Waitangi Day recently, "one of the country's largest city libraries was closed, with staff and security given the day off," the Guardian reported. "But an error with the automated door programming meant Tūranga's doors opened to the public as usual--and the unstaffed and unsecured library was happily used by the public, who browsed and checked out books for hours before someone realized the mistake. As well as its books, the library is home to a wide variety of artworks and sculpture--but staff say nothing was stolen, and there were no serious incidents to report."
A library staff member, who said 380 people entered the Christchurch building that Sunday morning, noted: "Our self-issue machines automatically started up and 147 books were issued by customers. No book-theft alarms went off, and at this stage nothing has been reported missing, nor have we spotted any damage."
"We're grateful for the honesty of the people who used the library during this time," said Bruce Rendall, the head of facilities, property and planning at Christchurch city council. --Robert Gray