With sponsorship commitments in hand from ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey, Otto Harrassowitz, and Thomson Scientific, and in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the University of Frankfurt Library, and the US Embassy in Berlin, U.S. librarians will be returning to Frankfurt this fall to take part in a host of exciting activities. WESS will be joining the German-North American Resources Partnership (GNARP) and other groups to staff a combined booth representing "US Academic and Research Libraries" at the usual location adjacent to German university libraries, US libraries in Germany, and international booksellers. The team effort and the generous support received so far will enable us to have a larger booth than in years past, complete with Internet hook-up, more display space, and a meeting table--maybe even a wastebasket. The fair opens the evening of October 3 and runs through October 8.

India is the Guest of Honor at this year's fair.

If the world's largest book event were not attraction enough, GNARP and the University of Frankfurt Library will be hosting an important two-day conference entitled "The World According to GNARP: Prospects for Transatlantic Library Partnership in the Digital Age," October 5-7. Focus of this meeting will be to explore the wealth of library resources available to students and researchers in Germany and the United States in five selected subject areas: North American Studies, German Studies, Judaica, Africana, and South Asia/India. In addition, several other important topics will be highlighted through keynote addresses and panel discussions: the future of German as a language of the sciences; the future of electronic journal archives in Germany and the U.S.; print and digital repositories; and a special panel on "comparative cataloging cultures" on both sides of the Atlantic. Registration, program, and hotel information will be available by mid-April on WESSWeb and at the GNARP site at http://www.crl.edu/grn/gnarp/index.asp.

Travel subsidies will be provided to book fair booth staffers and conference presenters, as well as to other North American participants on a competitive basis. A contingent of affordable hotel rooms ($60-90/night) located outside Frankfurt--including Gelnhausen and the famous Hotelschiff in Höchst--have already been reserved. An excursion and dinner in the Hessian countryside is in the works for Friday, October 6. We expect the total cost for travelers to Frankfurt, including airfare, at about $1300 (pre-subsidy). For more on Americans in Frankfurt, see the WESS documentation site at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wessweb/wessfair.htm or my own report in American Libraries, December 2004, online at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ala/Top?id=10070016&layout=document&page=36 .