Recap: Lunch and Learn / The Professional Booksellers School

"The Professional Bookseller School is all about your success. We want to give you the tools so that you can solve any problems that arise, that you have the training, that you have resources, and you also have connections to help you solve those problems." --Eileen Dengler, Director

SIBA's Lunch and Learn event with The Professional Booksellers School on September 9th introduced booksellers to the whole PBS team, who gave an in-depth look at what the school offers and what it hopes to achieve. 

Built around a core curriculum based on fundamental bookstore skills, PBS offers "deep dive" intensive courses on basic bookselling, inventory management, event management, and operations management, as well as other live courses and independent study opportunities. 

"When we start talking about what content is going to be in a class or a course, we all start with, "What's the thing I wish somebody had told me?" Or what's the thing that I had to learn the hard way, so that no one else ever has to learn it only the hard way?" --Elliott batTzedek, Dean

New programming is developed in response to the skills booksellers are looking for. "Bookstore Year One" -- created especially for newly opened stores, was launched in 2026 to meet the needs of the rising number of new bookstores in the post-pandemic era. Courses on Children's Bookselling and Succession Planning are currently in development.

As a PBS sponsor, SIBA offers members discounts on some courses and partial reimbursements for booksellers who complete a full course and receive certification. SIBA also makes some PBS classes as independent study free of charge.

Over 1000 booksellers have taken PBS classes since its inception. The skills of PBS graduates have impacted the book industry as a whole...which is the other goal PBS proudly claims—not only to make better booksellers,  but to make bookselling itself better.

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