A Bookshop Made for You
Games, Souvenirs, Books and Fiction, in a new Showcase at the Palais des Nations

EMMANUELLE GANTET, UN GENEVA
Translation produced by Nicolas Bovay, UN Geneva

The UN Bookshop at Geneva is the largest existing surface dedicated to the publications of the United Nations and its specialized agencies. It is situated in the Conferences building of the Palais des Nations, between the travel agency and guided tours departure point at Door 39. Today, it has been completely renovated, thus enhancing its original curvaceous architecture which is an enticement to discovery of publications as well as games and souvenirs, many of them sporting the UN emblem. Spotlight with Martin van Diermen, manager of the Bookshops at the Palais des Nations.

Mr van Diermen, since when have you been managing the UN Bookshops at Door 40 and at Pregny and what are your main responsibilities?
Up to 2000 the UN Bookshop at Door 40 was entirely managed by the Sales and Marketing Section of UN Publications. Since then its management has been outsourced. The Bookshop at Pregny opened in 2006. The agreement that we have with the United Nations gives us administrative and financial responsibility of the two bookshops which includes the recruitment and management of the staff in my team. The United Nations and its auditors have oversight on the management of the accounts. Furthermore, in order to monitor all transactions, ever since my arrival, I have put in place an electronic till that allows a statistical monitoring of all sales. That electronic till is linked to the bookshops as well as to the products database managed by the Sales and Marketing Section of UN Publications.

How is your cooperation with the Sales and Marketing Section of UN Publications?
Excellent. And Hannelore Chatard-Hein, from the Sales and Marketing Section of UN Publications, ensures permanent liaison with the bookshops. She is very enthusiastic and involved in the literary novelties and objects that can be proposed as UN gift and souvenir items, and is an essential part of the development strategy of our bookshops. She orders a vast range of publications and souvenirs and enters them in the database of the Sales and Marketing Section which is linked to the bookshops’ electronic till.

United Nations Publications issue some 400 new titles every year. What are they about?
They reflect the vast array of activities undertaken by the UN, such as human rights (A Compilation of International Instruments, available in the six official languages), disarmament (The United Nations Disarmament Yearbook), and development (Annual Report on Human Development), international law (Yearbooks of the International Law Commission), environment, and transport (European Agreement on the Transport of Dangerous Goods) and last but not least, economics (Trade and Development Report, Statistical Yearbook, Demographic Yearbook) and more specific fields such as timber (Forest Products Annual Market Review).

Are UN publications your main business?
The UN bookshop must remain a showcase for UN publications. However, in order to increase the sale of publications we must enhance the quality of the follow-up with our clientele. Our clients are increasingly attracted to souvenirs and gift items. These currently represent 75% of our revenues.

Who are your main clients ? The 30 000 delegates and 100 000 visitors to whom the Palais des Nations opens its doors each year, or the 40 000 members of the international community in Geneva, comprising the UN, its specialized agencies, NGOs and Permanent Missions?
The 100 000 visitors that visit the Palais des Nations every year represent a very important clientele: The guided tours finish at the UN Bookshop at Door 40. The 30 000 delegates are primarily in the Palais to attend a conference or a meeting. They don’t usually have much time to visit the bookshop and often don’t even know that there is one at Door 40. As for the international community in Geneva, they have many other temptations in the downtown shops and malls. UN staff working in the Palais represent a clientele that we care for quite particularly. They should consider the Palais bookshops as places where they can relax and a “must visit” when it comes to buying a book, a games, a gift that carries – or not – the UN logo.

Do your revenues cover your operating costs?
The annual global turnover of our bookshops is of about a million Swiss francs. The United Nations receives the revenue from sales. We get paid management fees to cover our operating costs.

How do you envisage opening up to staff in the Palais and other organizations?
We need to work on getting better known within the UN Office at Geneva. We also need to capitalize on client satisfaction to “spread the word”. With this objective in mind we are increasing our range of products. Our procurement efforts have undergone considerable transformation and we try to offer more diversity and more frequent novelty. As a bookshop we are offering more “general public” books and not necessarily just publications from the United Nations system. For example, with Hannelore Chatard-Hein, we are looking to propose general public books that would popularise United Nations themes as well as titles from private publishers. It is important to keep an inquisitive mind.

Since last May, the UN Bookshop at Door 40 has reopened after a complete renovation, with new furniture and a generally more airy aspect. Who carried out the project?
Over the years the redecoration has been rather expeditive and the inevitable wear and tear have damaged the walls and parquet. So to ensure greater visibility of the products and to make the place much more lively again, it had become necessary to revamp the bookshop and return it to its former glory and originality in terms of architecture. Along with the UNOG Sales and Marketing Section we chose new furniture, following the advice of Mr. Chibli, Chief architect at UNOG. His team then renovated the paintwork, the lighting system, the original oak parquet and the central travertine column. Thanks to the expert technical and logistical knowhow of his colleague, Catherine Mabilon, the tight deadline for the reopening of the bookshop was respected.

It is certainly true that the bookshop is now more spacious, and that and the warm coloured furniture helps to create a calm atmosphere. The overview we now have of the various products is an invitation to discover the books, the souvenirs, the gifts...
Thank you. I hope everybody will share your opinion. I would like to add that the revamping of those 200 square metres using integrated showcases and shelves has allowed us in the same space to double the surface allocated to souvenirs and other products! Everything is worth seeing.

Can you present your team to us?
My team is composed of eight people, all of different nationalities, which allows us to relate to our clients from around the world services in a large number of languages. Nearly all of them are professional booksellers or have a literary background. Given that the UNOG bookshops are open every day, even during weekends, there are various types of work contract - permanent, seasonal, daily, and even those who can replace during an emergency... No shop can ever close because of staff absence.

What brought you to specialize in United Nations publications?
I have not always worked in publications. However I have always been interested in a challenge. I managed a company that specialized in computer software as applied to machine tools, then in computerized distribution. I was for many years the official distributor of publications of the UN and specialized agencies and other intergovernmental organizations on the Swiss market. And today I spend 100% of my time on the Palais bookshops because they represent an important challenge for me in terms of choice of products, local communication and marketing and online sales.

What about the impact of the Internet on books?
Production and dissemination today are extraordinarily rapid. One can write in one place and print immediately 10 000 km away. The Internet has profoundly modified our lives and has made books and their content much more accessible, more particularly with regard to technical information. Hence, many UN publications are available online. Despite this, reference books, annual reports, or transport regulations, for example, are sources of information that readers prefer to have in book form for handy reference. Fortunately, public libraries too have a taste for real books and have not succumbed to the all electronic. Thanks to recent technological advances, books, have generally speaking become more beautiful objects than in the past, with more attractive layouts and imagery.

Is the United Nations involved in this tendency towards more «beautiful books»?
Partly so. Specialized publications show that more care is given to attractive covers, layout and design to offset technical texts that are often quite austere. As far as general public books produced by the UN are concerned, a lot of efforts is put into making them look really appealing.

When I go to large bookshops such as Fnac or Payot, I don’t see a UN section despite the fact that we produce over 400 titles every year
And this is precisely why the UN bookshops exist. The vast majority of UN publications have specialized content. Specialized publications have specialized dissemination networks. Fnac or Payot cater for the general public given the price of the square metre downtown, and the books that are presented there must be seen to give a good return on investment. Some of the general public publications produced by the UN could be proposed in downtown outlets but the Organization’s distribution network is still not organized in this way. The Sales and Marketing Section is currently working with commercial publishers which are present in various general public markets to benefit from their larger distribution networks.

What are your short term objectives?
To launch the UNOG Bookshop website with online payment and build up the proactive contacts database that it will generate. To develop the clientele of delegates, by giving them information on the bookshop upon their arrival in Geneva. And of course I look forward to welcoming more UN staff members in the bookshops, all the more so since they benefit from a reduction on set prices.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
You are looking for a gift? Do you have a bit of time to read? Don’t hesitate, come and see our novelties!