A brief history of ibooknet

In late 1999 a number of UK based internet booksellers on a public discussion list started talking about the need for their own UK internet bookselling co-operative. Many internet booksellers were used to using the services of third party databases and websites but a number of these had recently closed down or changed their trading terms without notice.

This sort of behaviour was like a high street antiques centre suddenly closing down, leaving the individual dealers with no sales outlet, or, without prior negotiation starting to charge commission, overnight changing the margin that the dealers were working on. Some were even hiding the real booksellers’ names and selling the listed booksellers’ stock as if it was their own.

It was felt that there was a need for a jointly owned site to give some stability to internet bookselling, especially for rare, used and second hand books, and to maintain booksellers’ identity and independence. Graeme Roberts of Magpie Books created a separate private discussion list for those interested and after some weeks a framework was agreed on the structure of a new co-operative group of booksellers.

The Independent Booksellers Network (IBN), a company limited by guarantee, was born in June 2000. The core group members, brought together with the purpose of wanting to protect and develop the book trade rather than be just another listing service, agreed that an IBN membership fee would help to ensure that only those with the same co-operative ethic would be interested in membership.

This, indeed, proved to be the case and many of those who had shown initial interest fell by the wayside when it came to putting money into the venture. By the time of their first face-to-face General Meeting in February 2001 there were just eight fully paid-up members. Undaunted they persevered and since then overall growth has been slow but steady with a current membership of over thirty.

The major benefit of membership is the co-operative nature of the group, administration of all aspects except data services being by the members themselves. In the event of queries or problems members have their own group ready to help, discounts have been negotiated with some suppliers and the private members' area of the website has developed into a community reference point on all aspects of bookselling.

A further stage in the life of IBN has just begun with a new supplier of data services. Members will in future have their own dynamic pages on the website and be able to manage their own content. All this is at a reduction in cost compared with the initial service provider - and at a time when other major listing services are increasing their charges to booksellers.

For buyers a shopping basket purchasing system is in place and a wants recording and matching service is in development. Book buyers can be assured that the IBN booksellers are British Isles based, have between them hundreds of years of experience and are committed to the highest professional standards of bookselling. They would like you to return to buy from them tomorrow and so they will treat you kindly today!

Ibooknet remains the only co-operative association of booksellers in the British Isles, delivering the unique benefits of co-operative ethics to both its members and the book-buying public. Its website currently offers some 300,000 rare, collectable and secondhand books.  

 G. A. Michael Sims