Monday, April 23, 2012

World Book & Copyright Day 2012 #WorldBookDay

LIASA poster: World Book Day 2012

Read Embrace Tomorrow

Today is World Book Day! It is a day of reflection and reading of books.

UNESCO describes the theme as a specific focus on books and translation this year:


"23 April is a symbolic date for world literature for on this date in 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
It was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity. In this respect, UNESCO created both the World Book and Copyright Day and the UNESCO Prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance.
The year 2012 also marks the 80th anniversary of the Index Translationum. This international bibliography of translation provides a unique tool for the monitoring of translation flows in the world. UNESCO will celebrate this anniversary by organizing a debate on this instrument."
                                                            - UNESCO World Book Day 

Read more about the background of World Book Day.

The message from the Director-General of UNESCO can be found here, and there are resources available on the UNESCO website.
The events of World Book Day 2012 that have been planned around the world are listed as well.


The Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) has made a poster available (see above), but unfortunately it seems that there are no specific events planned for today that's listed!

How should we celebrate this day?
Should we still reflect on the importance of books?
What about e-books and the proliferation of reading in the digital sphere?


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

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