Category Archives: Info

Publishers and Suppliers Supporting Retailers

Posted on December 16, 2009 by | 3 Comments

Several publishers and suppliers have been in touch recently with details of action they’re taking to offer retailers extra support through the current period of uncertainty with STL and/or during the run up to Christmas. This post provides a round up of the information I’ve gleaned or received so far; it is, of course, far from a comprehensive list: comments are open for anyone who’d like to add to it. My apologies for the length of time it has taken to prepare this post.

Starting with STL themselves, STL UK have, as has been their habit for several years now, reduced their carriage-free minimum order level from £75 trade value ex-VAT to £50 from 1st – 22nd December. Full details in their trade email 01/12/2009 and on the STL Blog, Reduced FREE Carriage Offer. Daily cut off points remain at 2.30pm for email, fax and telephone orders or 4.00pm via stldistribution.co.uk (don’t be misled by their “4pm Electronic Orders”: STL do not regard email as electronic).

STL USA have upped their game in an attempt to fill in the gaps resulting from their divorce-in-progress from STL UK and are now offering free carriage to the UK with direct delivery to bookshops rather than transhipment via Carlisle, subject to a minimum order of 15 items. Basic info on the STL UK blog, more details from STL USA. Feedback on the service has been mixed.

Other Suppliers (A – Z)

Caritas Music Publishing offer a wide range of CDs and DVDs with no minimum order requirement and no charge for carriage. Normally new customers would be required to open a Trade Account first before placing orders, but at present customers may place their orders direct with Katharine Douglas and open a Trade Account later, subject to agreement to the company’s trade terms. Many order forms can be downloaded from the website, others can be supplied electronically or by post. See the Trade Customers / Agents and Dealers page or the Caritas Blog for more details.

Gardners have been reviewing their religious stock range and establishing direct links with publishers previously supplied via STL. SPCK and Zondervan, for example, are both well represented, and some hard-to-find Thomas Nelson titles (such as Ian MacNair’s Teach Yourself New Testament Greek) can be supplied Print-on-Demand. Their recently updated Religious Books Catalogue (pdf, 1.5MB) lists over 8,000 titles.

Gates of Praise have reduced their carriage free minimum order value from £50 to £30 throughout December. Publishers distributed include Charisma House, Creation House and Destiny Image.

IVP continue to offer one of the best delivery services to the UK Christian book trade, with no  minimum order level or small-order surcharges and in-stock items on orders placed before 12 noon despatched same day for next day delivery. With HarperCollins now added to their portfolio alongside Bible Society, Crossway, IVP USA, the Good Book Company and Piquant — to name just some of the publishers they represent — IVP provide a vital link in the evangelical supply chain. Download their trade flyer or visit their trade section for more info.

Lindisfarne Scriptorium is offering weekly specials to both trade and retail. Recent offers include cards at half-price, down to 75p each, selected books at reduced prices and their key book and music by Iona’s Dave Bainbridge and David Fitzgerald available together for £19.99 instead of £29.98. Standard trade discounts are 30%-38%, 2% extra for pro-forma/card payments. For several trade outlets they offer 40% discount across the full range of products and if there is sufficient interest then a special card / print offer just for trade as well as generous discounts on the Life Journey range and Life in Christ range is available. To find out more, visit their Trade Enquiries page.

Norwich Books and Music: Like IVP, NBM offer an excellent service, with no  minimum order level or small-order surcharges and in-stock items on orders placed before 12 noon despatched same day — but not for next day delivery: delivery tends to take 3 to 4 working days. With HarperCollins now added to their portfolio alongside their own imprints (Canterbury Press and SCM), Church House Publishing, Darton, Longman & Todd and Epworth — amongst others — NBM provide an important link in the wider Christian supply chain.

Others out there include CLC Wholesale , Integrity-Provident Distribution and Ritchie Christian Media Supplies, of whom we’ll no doubt be hearing more in due course. All parties welcome to leave further details via the comments…

And finally, the Bible Society’s plans to gather the Christian book trade in January seem to be taking shape. The following information was sent out to the trade by email from Steve Briars earlier this month:

Stronger Together – Weaker Apart

… is a consultation and presentation day being organised by CRE/CBC in association with the Booksellers Association Christian Booksellers Group (BACBG), the Publishers Association Christian Suppliers Group and Christian Marketplace magazine.

  • Tuesday 12 January 2010
  • St Paul’s Church, Robert Adam Street, London, W1U 3HW
  • 10.30am for 11.00am – including buffet lunch – concluding by 2.00pm

Topics on the agenda include:

  • An Introduction to the new ChristianResourcesTogether Partnership
  • A Retailers and Suppliers Conference at the High Leigh Conference Centre
  • A Retailers Day at the Christian Resources Exhibition at Sandown Park

Personal  invitations should be sent out before Christmas: responses are requested no later than Thursday 7th Jan 2010. Contact Steve or Mandy Briars at CRE for more information.

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“Former-SPCK” Creditors: Letters to Church Times, The Bookseller

Posted on December 9, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Matt Wardman writes:

I mentioned in a previous posting that we had written to a number of outlets to publicise the call for Creditors of the former-SPCK bookshop chain, and to raise a number of concerns about the way the brevity of the deadline, and the narrowness of the subset of creditors likely to see a notice placed only in The Bookseller.
Continued: read more

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Debts of the former SPCK bookshop chain: Church Times letter

Posted on December 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Matt Wardman writes:

We have a  letter published in the Church Times this week about the former SPCK bookshop chain. Kudos to the CT for putting it outside the paywall, where everyone can see it.

A fuller version, with a few points about the J Mark Brewer attempt (known to us as the Great Texan Wild Goose Chase) to dodge debts by putting a sort-of conflation of various bits of his organisations into Bankruptcy in South Texas, declaring lots of debts but none of the assets, is in this week’s Bookseller – but they don’t always put letters online.

Debts of the former SPCK bookshop chain

From Mr Phil Groom and others

Sir,

We must thank the Interim Manager appointed to oversee the Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, and Saint Stephen the Great, charities for his work in stopping the rot in the former SPCK bookshop chain, and recovering the shops (Durham Cathedral Bookshop excepted) from Philip and J. Mark Brewer. At least we are now on the way out of the woods.

We note, however, the notice from him in The Bookseller last week suggesting that creditors “who believe that they have a valid claim against the Trustees of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust incurred before 1 July 2007” should write to him at: The Interim Manager, Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3BT, under “ref. S8703” before the close of business on 16 December.

This causes us some concerns. The Interim Manager is completely right that this whole affair has been made fearsomely complex by the use by J. Mark and Philip Brewer of at least seven different corporate entities over the past three years. These comprise three charities, three private companies, and a company limited by guarantee, some of which have similar or identical names, and all controlled by various permuta­tions of the Brewer family members.

The notice as published seeks creditors of “St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust”, without identifying a specific charity number, and restricts the call to debts incurred before the end of June 2007. Given the confused governance and business relation­ships, we suggest that the Interim Manager needs to cast a far wider net, at least initially.

We are also concerned about the deadline for responses. The SPCK bookshop chain was a business with worldwide links, and the range of creditors may well include cathed­rals, communion-wine suppliers, development charities, craft busi­nesses, religious communities in Eastern Europe, a consulting engineer, and others. All of these creditor groups appeared in Texas court documents in 2008.

We urge all creditors, and potential creditors, to get in touch with the Interim Manager using the contacts in the notice, and/or those given on the Charity Commission site stsgct@gothamerskine.co.uk, via email, or by phone on 020 7490 1880.

We hope that a specific contact will be made with the hundreds of suppliers identified in the court documents. We also hope that the deadline for responses will be extended to a more realistic period, perhaps to the end of January 2010.

PHIL GROOM
MATT WARDMAN
SIMON BARROW

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SAP and IBS-STL UK: A Timeline and Some Reflections

Posted on December 1, 2009 by | 23 Comments

Given that the collapse of IBS-STL UK has largely been attributed to its failed SAP implementation, the following timeline (which undoubtedly has a few gaps) may prove helpful in formulating the questions that should now be asked in order to ensure that a disaster like this doesn’t happen again. The fact that SAP was intended to be a global roll out but stopped here in the UK also raises questions: I reflect briefly upon some of these at the end.

October 2007: Groupsoft announces the start of SAP implementation in the UK, the first phase of a proposed “multi-country” roll out:

Groupsoft starts IBS-STL SAP Retail Project in UK

IBS-STL is one of the largest Bible and Christian literature ministries in the world – they translate the Bible into world languages that have 1 million or more speakes and distribute the Bible—and evangelism and discipleship literature—to people who might never learn about Christ any other way.

Groupsoft is implementing SAP Retail ECC 6.0 – across their multi-country distribution systems – in US, UK, South Africa, India and China.

23 October 2008: STL UK website and order processing suspended for SAP installation.

28 October 2008: SAP goes live.

3 November 2008: STL Blog: Apologies are offered as problems rapidly become evident. Delays in order despatch and tracking are acknowledged:

As planned the system went live last Tuesday and we were able to despatch some orders. Orders continued to be despatched everyday last week, although it wasn’t until Friday that we experienced a relatively trouble free day and were operating at anything near full capacity. We do continue to experience some issues which may cause some inconvenience, e.g. the interface with Fed Ex is not yet operational and we are unable to advise you exactly where your order is once it has left our Warehouse.

5 November 2008: STL Blog: “some technical difficulties with a small number of orders” acknowledged. Problems with carriage charges on backorders noted.

6 November 2008: I report briefly on the situation from a retailer’s perspective: STL: Back Online but not Back Up to Speed

7 November - 11 November - 12th November 2008: STL Blog: “problems in moving stock from bulk to live racking” blamed for delays in order processing.

14 November 2008: Timing isn’t the issue – Mark Hurley: Decision to ‘Go Live’ with SAP in the run up to Christmas 2008 is defended as having been taken “at the highest level”. Trade customers express dismay as orders remain unfulfilled.

19 November 2008: Steve Mitchell presents SAP Go Live to the Booksellers Association Christian Booksellers Group (BACBG). In an open letter to trade customers, Graham Sopp apologises for ongoing problems, although problems are attributed to “business process bottlenecks” rather than to the software itself:

We originally planned to implement the new system in August. However as the date approached, it became apparent that further testing of the new system was necessary before we could commence training people in how to use the system. We were faced with a choice of going live in late October or waiting until January 2009. Unfortunately, we would have faced immense difficulties in standing down our external project team of consultants for three months while we prepared to go live and then to re-assemble that team in January. After extensive testing of the system we were confident we could start with, at most, minor disruption. So we took the decision to go live in October.

Most of the problems we have encountered over recent weeks are related to business process bottlenecks and are not directly related to software and, in fairness to the system team, could not have been anticipated by the extensive testing we carried out.

I report briefly on the BACBG meeting: STL: Light at the End of the Tunnel?

22 December 2008: STL Blog: In the face of continuing difficulties faced by trade customers, a detailed explanation and defence of the SAP implementation is offered: Why SAP and why now??

19 January 2009: Trade customers receive further apologies for delays in despatch along with the following explanation:

The reason for this is our team of consultants are still working on solving a number of bedding down issues in SAP where orders can get stuck in the system.

January/February 2009: Keith Danby takes control of UK operations and apologises for the problems caused by the UK SAP implementation. From Christian Marketplace, February 2009:

Asked about the recent difficulties which the trading arm of the charity had been experiencing in the UK, following the introduction of new systems at its warehousing operations in Carlisle, Danby said, “SAP has been a very big investment for IBS-STL. We made this investment because we believe this will ultimately give us a Global Enterprise System.”

With regards to the timing of the implementation he commented, “When we embarked on this project we wrote into the contract that we would not ‘go live’ during the autumn trading period. Originally, it was to be launched in the spring. Like all major computer projects, there was slippage and the revised date was then end of August which slipped to September and the finally to October. At one time we had over 20 SAP consultants working to keep deadlines.” He also stated, “It is important that you know that Graham [Sopp] was not asked to step down as CEO because of the SAP problems.”

Danby also made the point that had the system not gone live in October then the launch would have had to be held back to March 2009. “Delaying to March would mean the SAP consultants having to leave for 4-5 months … as they are all freelance consultants, getting them to come back as a team was regarded as unlikely.” The SAP software was successfully installed “and it works” said Danby, “but we encountered significant operational procedure problems”. He admitted that more time was needed for testing it with their operating procedures than had been anticipated.

“We have spent 21 years being committed to serving the UK Christian Retail trade”, he said. “We take failures like this very seriously and I say again we are deeply embarrassed and sorry.”

25 February 2009: STL Blog: Update given on returns, receiving and backorders:

Single line backorders are still occuring; however we have seen a substantial reduction in the incidence. Our team along with consultants from SAP are continuing to work on resolving the residual issues.

8 April 2009: STL Blog: Message from Keith Danby acknowledges ongoing unresolved issues “with the new IT system” and announces the appointment of Andrew Clyde as Director of IT with specific responsibility for SAP development work.

1 May 2009: STL Blog: Problems with SAP blamed for Invoices with 0% discount:

If for a new product a product group is selected on a discount matrix where no value is maintained then SAP will apply no trade discount to the order – the result on your invoice is 0% discount. So how could this happen? Well, SAP is not able to automatically check that for say a particular Authentic book the combination of product group and customer group is correct.

14 August 2009: STL Blog: Trade Announcement from Keith Danby states:

A number of factors including the SAP implementation have caused STL Distribution serious Supply Chain difficulties, which have resulted in severe cash flow problems.

16 November 2009: Biblica announces the sale of its UK operations and lays much of the blame for the crisis upon the problems with SAP. This is perhaps best summarised in Tania Mason‘s report for Civil Society, Top-250 Christian charity to close, 18/11/2009:

David Young, the charity’s UK general manager, said the charity had been struggling financially for some time but the failed attempt to install an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in October 2008, that should have integrated all its warehousing, sales and customer services, was the nail in the coffin.

“We installed the accounting software a year earlier and on its own it worked fine, but the implementation of the ERP caused all kinds of problems with inventory and it was just as the recession hit. Those two things together gave us serious problems.”

They resulted in significant cashflow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in the charity’s distribution and retail units. [...]

[...] SAP is yet to respond to IBS-STL UK’s criticism of its ERP system. A spokeswoman told Civil Society: “They are still talking about and trying to get to grips with the problem.”

18 November 2009: STL Distribution USA issues a statement — cited at Christian Book Shop Talk — to counter rumours that its operations are also under threat, advising customers (amongst other things) that

The US organization has not attempted to install the SAP software, and our systems are not affected by the attempted installation in the UK.

Concluding Reflections

The fact that the USA division (and presumably the other international divisions mentioned in Groupsoft’s October 2007 announcement) has not attempted to install SAP raises at least two questions:

  • At what point was the decision made to discontinue the global roll out?
  • Why, at that point, was the UK implementation not halted?

To an outside observer — judging purely by the extent to which the blame for STL UK’s crisis has been placed on the SAP implementation failure — it appears that IBS-STL UK, its employees and trade partners seem more than anything else to be paying the price for drawing the short straw: for being unfortunate enough to be first in a roll out that was part of a much grander scheme. If the implementation had first been attempted in the USA, South Africa, China or India, would it now be one of those divisions fighting for survival instead of the UK?

Clearly other factors have been at play, not least the state of the economy, but the SAP implementation had to start somewhere and it is a tragedy that Biblica, in the end, did not have the necessary resources to support the division that drew that terrible short straw.

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(Updated) Former-SPCK/SSG Bookshops Interim Manager advertises for Creditor Claims

Posted on November 27, 2009 by | Leave a comment
Matt Wardman writes:

This advert appeared in this week’s Bookseller.
Note that you only have about a fortnight to write in.
ST STEPHEN THE GREAT CHARITABLE TRUST

This charity has been in the press over recent years as a result of concerns expressed over its operations. In April 2009 the Charity Commission appointed Peter Gotham of Begbies Traynor as Interim Manager to take over its running - other than with respect to its religious mission in the churches it controls. This objective was made more complicated by virtue of the fact that since July 2007 the shops previously operated by the charity were managed instead by other companies appointed by the Trustees. The Interim Manager has now completed his initial work, has retaken possession of most shops, and is moving towards meeting valid claims on the charity’s assets. In order to do this he has instructed agents to put various of the Trust’s properties on sale. He is now advertising for creditors’ claims incurred before 1 July 2007 in order to ensure that no valid claims go unmet. (Any claims incurred after 1 July 2007 will be the responsibility of the various companies engaged by the Trustees.)
Creditors who believe that they have a valid claim against the Trustees of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust incurred before 1 July 2007, should write to the Interim Manager at Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3BT under ref S8703 before the close of business on 16 December 2009.
Presented by: Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP
Presenter’s Reference: S8703/PJG/NGA/BRS

———————————————————————————-
Editorial Note: At this point I am not at all convinced by the cut-off date, though, without seeing rock-solid evidence. For example, Mark Brewer was reported by the Bookseller as acting for SSG in November 2007 when the chain dropped the SPCK name.

And which external companies were responsible for running the shops after 1 July 2007? The company which seems to have been responsible for running most of them – ENC Shop Management Ltd – was not registered at Companies House until 11 March 2008

Groups such as the Church of England Pensions’ Board and various government agencies, and other creditors, need to take a close look at this.

And you only have 2 weeks to do so.
[Update: 27/9/1009.

We have been in touch with the interim Manager's team during the afternoon.
The reason why responsibility is accepted for debts incurred before 1 July 2007 is that the Interim Manager was appointed to manage the "St Stephen the Great Trust" (no 1119839) charity, while a separate  charity - a Company Limited by Guarantee - had been created to manage the bookshops. The Interim Manager was not appointed to manage this Company Limited by Guarantee, and so they are not accepting reponsibility for debts incurred by this Company.
Editorial note: This is all horribly complicated, and we will try and submit a list of detailed questions to the Interim Manager and the Charity Commission over the weekend.  The Company Limited by Guarantee was merged with the parent charity (no 1119839) by direction of the Charity Commission on 27 July 2007 - see the "subsidiary charities" page on the link above, so it is not clear to us how the Interim Manager is entirely not responsible for actions of this charity.
In the meantime, there is an email address for the Interim Manager on the Charity Commission website, where you can send your precise queries.]

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Saving STL UK: Towards a sustainable business model?

Posted on November 24, 2009 by | 5 Comments

Whether or not the possibility of a group buyout for IBS-STL UK will even be considered by Biblica’s Board and Trustees remains to seen. As of this posting I am still awaiting detailed financial statements from the company, without which it is somewhat difficult to even begin to prepare anything remotely resembling a firm proposal for prospective investors to consider. My understanding, however, is that the level of interest from prospective buyers has exceeded Biblica’s expectations and that discussions with some are well underway: at this stage it appears that a consortium such as I have suggested may not be needed.

Nonetheless, in response to several queries, here is a rough guide to how I would envisage a new business taking shape under a trade/community shared ownership model. This is emphatically not a business plan: it is very much preliminary thinking and all input, for, against or otherwise, is very welcome.

  • Freedom of speech, including the use of blogs and social media, will be actively encouraged at all levels.
  • SAP will be subjected to intense scrutiny and, given the experience to date, most likely scrapped, to be replaced by a tried and tested system licensed from another wholesaler.

Looking at the three divisions…

1. Wesley Owen
The chain itself would cease to exist. The shops would be rebranded and refocused on their local communities, with consortia of local churches and/or other Christian groups each taking responsibility for their own local branch, with an emphasis upon developing the shop as a social/community hub. Branch managers and staff would be responsible for stock selection with each shop aiming to become self-sufficient within a pre-agreed period.

  • Please see Matt Wardman’s post New Ways of Being Bookshop and the appendix of related discussions for some ideas on how this might be taken forward.

2. STL Distribution
The distribution division would be owned and operated by its employees, retailers, publishers and other investors working together. My vision would be for it to be run by a democratic board drawn from amongst the investors and answerable to their fellow investors: a genuine shared ownership company operated by the very people for whom it exists.

  • To help tackle the debts, I invite publishers to consider writing off some or all of the amounts owed to them in exchange for part ownership.
  • Retailers investing in the operation would be offered preferential trade terms.

3. Authentic Media and Paternoster Press
The publishing division would be offered for sale to other Christian publishing houses, possibly splitting into three segments: music, popular books and academic books. I do not expect, however, this to be an issue as I would be surprised if Biblica have not already found a buyer (or buyers) for this division.

Wrapping Up
Thank you to all those who have contributed to the discussions so far: please keep your comments and suggestions coming. As previously stated, this is not a business plan, although I hope that it might form the foundation for one. At present the ball remains in Biblica’s court…

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Shop Opening Times

Posted on October 21, 2009 by | Leave a comment

It has been brought to my attention that some shops’ opening times — in particular, those of some CLC Bookshops — in the Directory are incorrect. Those that I have been told about will be updated as soon as possible, but in the meantime, my sincere apologies to anyone inconvenienced by this.

Please remember, however, that this is a purely voluntary project, one of several that I am involved with, and with more than 600 Christian bookshops and retailers listed, it isn’t always possible to update things as rapidly as everyone would like. In the ideal world, I’d update everything instantly; in the real world, dependent upon other commitments, it can take anything from 24 hours to several weeks.

If you’re a retailer, please take this opportunity to check your entry’s accuracy and let me know if any changes are needed; if you’re a prospective customer, please remember that it’s always wise to check directly with the shop concerned before you visit: even when the opening times given are correct, it’s possible that the shop may be short staffed or temporarily closed for some other reason…

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Updates Underway Soon

Posted on August 20, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Over the last month I’ve received a number of update requests for Directory entries. Due to holidays and other commitments it hasn’t been possible to make the changes requested yet but these should be underway shortly, hopefully within the next week or so: please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused in the meantime.

Day of Prayer in the Menu BarPlans are coming together for the Day of Prayer and a date should be announced soon. If you’re a member of the Christian Authors, Booksellers and Publishers facebook group, please keep an eye on your facebook inbox; and if you’d like to join the group, please ask.

Latest info will be posted here as it becomes available on a dedicated Day of Prayer page: follow the link in the menu/navigation bar across the top of every page. If you plan to host an event, please post details of where and when in the comments on that page — and please spread the word across your own networks.

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For the avoidance of doubt: this is a 100% independent blog

Posted on May 7, 2009 by | 2 Comments

It’s also 100% voluntary and 100% for the public benefit, which in my view makes it 100% charity — but let’s not go there right now. It’s been brought to my attention that some visitors may be under the impression that this blog is affiliated to or perhaps formally endorsed by the BA Christian Booksellers Group: it isn’t.

Whilst I myself am a member of the group’s executive committee and very much appreciate the group’s encouragement, I am first of all an independent bookseller, currently employed by London School of Theology (LST) to manage their on-campus bookstore. I run UKCBD entirely off my own bat, however, and — unless otherwise explicitly stated — nothing posted here should be taken as representing the views of either the BA or LST (or, for that matter, Christian Marketplace magazine, to which I am a contributor).

If you’re a newcomer, you may have missed this blog’s About page: most blogs have them; always worth checking out. You’ll find a link in the navigation bar at the top of every page: please do take a moment to familiarise yourself with it. Here’s an excerpt:

UKCBD, the UK Christian Bookshops Directory, is an independent, voluntarily maintained project which exists to promote the Christian faith by providing a two-way resource to the Christian community: an easy way to find your nearest Christian Bookshop, and an easy way for Christian Bookshops to get online.

For more detailed information about the site’s ownership and operating principles, please see Whose blog is this, anyway?

And from that page:

Please also note that opinions expressed are those of the contributors concerned: they should not be taken as representing the views of any particular group or organisation unless otherwise stated. In particular, my own comments are mine and mine alone: I do not speak on behalf of either the BA or LST.

Finally, I’d like to point all visitors towards the Disclaimer notice posted in the sidebar (below the Copyright notice, above the Terms of Use) which appears on every static page, including the home page:

Disclaimer

Disclaimer Notice

All opinions expressed are those of the individual contributors concerned and should not be taken as representing the views of any particular group or organisation unless otherwise stated. For further clarification please see: Whose blog is this, anyway?

I trust that this clarifies the situation but if you have any further questions about these matters, please either leave a comment on this post or contact me privately.

Thank you.

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A Further Note about Directory Updates

Posted on January 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

UK Christian Bookshops Directory

First of all, my thanks to everyone who has been in touch about out of date UKCBD entries: the updates requested are underway and the focus on updates will continue throughout January/February 2009.

Secondly, my apologies to those who have been inconvenienced as a result of out of date entries. It is to you, primarily, that this post is addressed, as well, of course, as serving as another reminder to bookshop owners and managers.

Since the project was launched back in 2001, it has grown from a simple index of a relative handful of Christian Bookshops to a much more wide ranging resource, featuring trade news (news section launched 2004) and Book Reviews (also 2004) alongside separate indexes of Christian Cafés and Secondhand Dealers. Most recently, this blog was added in April 2008 followed by SPCK/SSG News, Notes & Info (June 2008), tracking developments in the ongoing debacle of the former SPCK bookshops.

As the project has grown, the amount of work involved has grown with it, making it increasingly difficult to track entries and keep them updated. At the same time, however, the project has remained a free and voluntary service: there are no charges for Directory listings and there are no paid staff.

Today, with more than 600 businesses listed, it’s more important than ever for those businesses to take ownership of their entries: for business owners, managers and shop staff to check their entries regularly and to take the initiative in letting me know when changes are needed (a point in fact spelt out in the site’s Terms of Use, excerpt below for quick reference).

Please keep this in mind when using the Directory: much as I’d like to have the time to review every entry on a regular basis, most entries will only ever be as up to date as the information last provided by the company/organisation concerned. If you come across an out of date entry, please make a point of notifying both the company concerned and myself.

Modification dates are noted at the top of each page: these, however, show when the page itself was last changed, not that all entries on the page have been checked. Entries added or updated since May 2005, however, feature a link to a corresponding standalone page and since January 2008 these have included the actual entry modification date, as shown top right in this example:

Standalone Entry for Norwich Christian Resource Centre

Standalone Entry for Norwich Christian Resource Centre

And finally, for those who may be wondering…

A Note About Finances

The project is financed by a combination of sponsorships, subscriptions, affiliate programmes and Google Adsense Advertising: 

This generates enough income to cover essential running costs such as web hosting, domain registration fees and other admin expenses along with some advertising. It does not generate enough to cover the cost of a full or even part time administrator. If you’d like to help or have any suggestions for better fundraising with that end in view, please get in touch. Thank you.

Excerpt from UKCBD Terms of Use

Whilst every effort will be made to ensure that information in the Directory is accurate and up to date, no liability whatsoever can be accepted for any errors or consequences arising therefrom.

Entries are based upon information provided directly by or derived from the websites of the shops concerned and, in the case of Booksellers Association (BA) members, from the BA Members Directory (used with permission). Each shop or business listed is responsible for ensuring that its own listing is kept up to date.

No endorsement of any business listed is implied. Any relationship or transaction established between you and any business listed exists only between you and that business: it is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that the business meets your requirements.

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