New Zooguidebooks

snowleopard said:
I was wondering the same thing! I own the Elephant Odyssey guidebook and I'm interested in purchasing all of the new American guidebooks but how does one go about doing that? Amazon.com? Abebooks.com? Those are a couple of great sources for zoo books.
Click to expand...

Some these Facillities do have an Onlinestore, so Georgia Aquarium, Cleveland Zoo, New England Aquarium; you can buy the guidebooks there. For Overseas International customers is it possible, too, but the shipping costs just for one book are extremly high...

Unfortunately, San Diegos has closed the Onlinestore and since a couple of weeks I try to contact them by E-Mail to order the guidebboks, but they do not answer-very poor for this famous Zoo.

The People at the WAP are much nicer,they send the guidebook without any problems.

I think, I contact Beckon Books,maybe it is possible to purchase the guidebooks from there.I hope, I can order the upcoming Phoenix Guidebook without any Problem.
 
@Ituri and Bib Fortuna: thanks for pointing out the online stores, but the price of shipping is outrageous. I'd like to purchase all of the guidebooks but for example the Philadelphia Zoo one is $15 and then shipping to Canada is $19 and I'm not sure that it would be worth $34. Yikes! I only live 10 minutes away from the U.S. border and so I could get an American post office box but then again that is more money out of my pocket. I would be intrigued if Beckon Books would ship directly from their site, and I've found that Abebooks.com is terrific for zoo-related literature of all shapes and sizes.
 
@Snowleopard

I tried to contact Beckon books several Times by E_mail-but I've got no reponse yet, so I ordered the San Diego Guidebooks through the SD Safaripark ! They sell the books now for a reduced Price for 11 Dollar .

Does anybody know whats on the cover of the current Georgia Aquarium Little Guidebook , and if the Dallas World Aquarium has someting new printed materials, guidebook or Field Guide ?
 
Bib Fortuna said:
@Snowleopard

I tried to contact Beckon books several Times by E_mail-but I've got no reponse yet, so I ordered the San Diego Guidebooks through the SD Safaripark ! They sell the books now for a reduced Price for 11 Dollar .

Does anybody know whats on the cover of the current Georgia Aquarium Little Guidebook , and if the Dallas World Aquarium has someting new printed materials, guidebook or Field Guide ?
Click to expand...

I've also emailed Beckon Books and just like you have not received any kind of response. It baffles me that a publishing company would not be interested in replying to a polite email from a guidebook fan but sadly that seems to be the norm these days.
 
Hi guidebook lovers!

Wow! I just discovered this wonderful site thanks to a few of you who have written me. I'm the publisher at Beckon Books and we LOVE Zoo guidebooks! (Along with Aquarium books and other books for these magnificent cultural attractions.) I'll try to respond to a few of the comments and questions you have posted, but just a quick note to say we are a firm believer in these books and have seen a great response at retail. In our experience, these products are by no means going away. They are, in fact, quite strong. We are actively investing in the development of new guidebooks for a number Zoos across the US and now into Europe. As you have noted, we are right now printing a wonderful new book for the Phoenix Zoo, and we have published books for San Diego, Philadelphia, Cleveland, among many others. We do not at this time have a way to sell books directly (they are all sold through our partners) but based on your comments I will certainly find a way to set this up for you. Thanks for your interest in these books! Please send me any thoughts and feedback as we look forward to publishing many more in the year ahead.
 
Hi! It's Chris at Beckon Books and I apologize for not responding to your email but I fear it was caught in our spam email filter. We are definitely interested in responding to and engaging with guidebook fans, so thanks for reaching out to us. As I just posted, we do not have a way at present to sell books directly but I will work on it. You also noted that we reduced the price of our Safari Park book. While the pricing of our books is up to each Zoo, we were pleased to see that the Safari Park brought it down slightly to make it more accessible. Unfortunately we do not have a map in the book because it changes frequently and we have to print a 2-year supply of books to keep the cost down.
 
Welcome at Zoochat, Chris, and thank you for this fascinating Statement from the"other Side"of the Zooguidebook-World-I'm very curious, for what other Zoos and aquariums, especially also the eurpeans, you will publish a new Guidebook.
 
We just released the new Commemorative Book for the Phoenix Zoo! It went on sale the end of last week. You can buy a copy on the Phoenix Zoo website or if you want to purchase a set of our Zoo books just drop me a note and we'll get them to you. The Zoo books we have in stock in our offices are as follows: Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, San Diego Zoo: Safari Park Guidebook, San Diego Zoo: Elephant Odyssey, San Diego Zoo: Panda Trek, and San Diego Zoo: 100 Extraordinary Images. The aquarium books we have in stock are: Shedd Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium, and New England (Boston) Aquarium. Many more new books will be coming from Beckon next year, including a magnificent new Guidebook for the San Diego Zoo. I'll keep you posted and be sure everyone can get copies and have them shipped to you as efficiently as possible.
 
I've now purchased 10 guidebooks from Beckon Books and I'd highly recommend them all to anyone who actively collects zoo memorabilia. The publications are large, glossy and colourful, and the Shedd & Georgia guidebooks are hardcover as an added bonus. Chris Capen, the President of Beckon Books, has been hugely supportive of the zoo literature industry and via several emails and a phone call he went out of his way to put together a superb package of books to send to my Canadian home. He has assured me that there are even more zoo guidebooks due in the next few years and I'll be first in line to order them as soon as they are published.

Here are the 10 that I own:

San Diego Zoo: Elephant Odyssey
San Diego Zoo: Panda Trek
San Diego Zoo: 100 Extraordinary Images
San Diego Zoo Safari Park (146 pages including the cover)
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Phoenix Zoo
New England Aquarium
Shedd Aquarium (100 pages including the cover)
Georgia Aquarium
 
2013 was a very good year for zoo collectors in Poland (the best ever I must say). New guides were published by Chorzów, Łódź, Opole (in polish and in czech), Płock, Poznań (two quite different guides from Old Zoo and New Zoo), Toruń, Wrocław and Zamość (two slightly different versions in polish and english).
 
Impressive-we had 2013 seven new guidebooks in germany-Berlin Zoo,Tierpark and Aquarium,Münster, Aschersleben,Stuttgart and Augsburg Zoo.So the polish collectors are happy collectors. Enjoy it as long as you can-in Germany, old style guides become every year more rare and rare, some of the big Zoos like Hagenbeck,Dresden,Cologne,Magdeburg and Osnabrück has stopped producing guidebooks in 2005, 1998 and 1999 Munich has published the last guide in 2008 ( Dr. Knierim hasn't prouced a guidebook in his time at Munich, so I'm afraid, he also will replace all the guidebooks in Berlin for free maps -it's cheaper ! ) and it seems, also Frankfurt will follow this new path....( but not decided yet)I'm curious, if Stuttgart will publish a new guidebook, after the park got a new, Young director this year.

All these zoo say, they do not sell a guidebook any longer, because the visitors don't buy them-but on the others die, some other Zoos offer a guidebook dispite this fact-Nuremburg for example sells an excellent guidebook and produces every two years a new Edition.
And some Zoos also offers guidebooks for Special houses-Rostock is doing a Guidebook for the Darwineum, and also Leipzig Zoo has a Special guidebook for Gondwanaland. Some german Zoos have pre-announced new guidebooks for 2014, but I guess, in 10 or 15years, guidebooks will almost fully dissappeared from Germany.
 
First Uk-Zoo Guidebook of 2014 was published by Colchester-with a drawn Sunbear on the cover. Title: "Year of the Bear"Souvenier Guidebook.
 
Bib Fortuna said:
First Uk-Zoo Guidebook of 2014 was published by Colchester-with a drawn Sunbear on the cover. Title: "Year of the Bear"Souvenier Guidebook.
Click to expand...

...which, confusingly, was actually published and on sale in late 2013, despite having a 2014 publication date shown within.

Colchester have published an extraordinary number of different guidebooks over the past few years. Which is good!
 
Colchester has published every year a new guidebook since 2007,and in 2002,2010 and 2011 they even had two guidebooks ! Thats unique...

A lot of Zoos and Safariparks in the Uk have every year a new Edition of their guidebook, and mostly they are updated for each year and not only Reprints with a new cover; I like that, of course, but I wonder about that-are the british Zoo visitors more interested in Guidebooks than the Germans ? No Zoo in Germany has every year a new guidebook-Berlin Zoo and Tierpark did a Long time, the zoo has stopped it 2009, and I'm sure, the Tierpark, which had until 2013 every year a new Edition, will stop Publishing a guidebook, as like as the Zoo also-I bet, Dr.Knierim isn't interested in doing a product nobody buys...

Berlin Zoo has around 2 Million visitors each year, but in 2012, they sold only 12 200 guidebooks...in the 90tys, they sold around 30 00 Guides...the Tierpark has sold the same year 13 349 Guides, altough they have less vistors than the zoo.
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Berlin Zoo has around 2 Million visitors each year, but in 2012, they sold only 12 200 guidebooks...in the 90tys, they sold around 30 00 Guides...the Tierpark has sold the same year 13 349 Guides, altough they have less vistors than the zoo.
Click to expand...

Wow, I can't believe so few people buy them! It kind of makes sense to stop making them if they are that unpopular. From a collector's point of view that's very sad, but maybe they could turn the guidebooks into Apps for their zoos?
 
zooboy28 said:
Wow, I can't believe so few people buy them!
Click to expand...

I firmly believe that people will buy them if they are encouraged to buy them. The only institution that I have ever visited where visitors are asked, routinely, as they pay for their tickets, "would you like to buy a guidebook?", are the avowedly commercial Sealife centres. And people do buy them there! Elsewhere, too often it is almost difficult to buy a guidebook. A personal apotheosis here was in Neunkirchen Zoo, in Germany, where, despite my being able to see a pile of the things, the woman at the kiosk would only let me purchase one copy.....

zooboy28 said:
It kind of makes sense to stop making them if they are that unpopular.
Click to expand...

If they are seen purely as money-making exercises, possibly yes. But if they are seen as an educational device, then their continuation should not be dependent on sales figures.

zooboy28 said:
maybe they could turn the guidebooks into Apps for their zoos?
Click to expand...

There's a sentence to make the blood of any collector of zoo paraphernalia run cold!
 
sooty mangabey said:
I firmly believe that people will buy them if they are encouraged to buy them. The only institution that I have ever visited where visitors are asked, routinely, as they pay for their tickets, "would you like to buy a guidebook?", are the avowedly commercial Sealife centres. And people do buy them there! Elsewhere, too often it is almost difficult to buy a guidebook. A personal apotheosis here was in Neunkirchen Zoo, in Germany, where, despite my being able to see a pile of the things, the woman at the kiosk would only let me purchase one copy.....

If they are seen purely as money-making exercises, possibly yes. But if they are seen as an educational device, then their continuation should not be dependent on sales figures.

There's a sentence to make the blood of any collector of zoo paraphernalia run cold!
Click to expand...

Well you can't have it both ways, if they are only educationally-focused they would probably reach more people as an App...
 
zooboy28 said:
Well you can't have it both ways, if they are only educationally-focused they would probably reach more people as an App...
Click to expand...

This raises a whole other, interesting but (on this thread) probably peripheral discussion about the extent to which knowledge derived from a screen compares to knowledge derived from more traditional sources. As an educationalist, I must admit to being sceptical about the extent to which information gathered electronically is as deeply imbedded as that which is heard, or read from paper - there is just too much else going on for it to really take root. And I must admit to dying inside, a little, when I see people - children especially - armed with iPhones or iPads at the zoo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top