Within the world’s celebrations of “World
Book and Copyright Day” “Abu Dhabi Cultural Center” in collaboration with the “UAE
University” in “Abu Dhabi” organized the “World Book and Copyright Day Forum”
at the Center’s public library, meanwhile the “Reading Hour” event organized by
the Center in collaboration with the “Abu Dhabi Education Council” continues until Wednesday (30/ April/2014) .
The Council took charge of developing
governmental schools libraries transforming them into centers and resources forlearning,
to To conform to the requirements of the twenty-first century, and supporting
(268) school libraries with over (450)
thousand books, in both Arabic and English languages, in addition to connecting
them electronically with general international libraries, and opening school libraries during summer vacation for
the public and local community in order to spread the reading and knowledge
culture among students and their parents. This came after a study conducted by
the Council which showed that over (50%) of the students’ parents read less
than five hours weekly, where some do not read at all, which the students reading illiteracy to their
parents who do not help their children to love reading, it warned families from
encouraging their children to watch TV shows and films and TV game shows in the
place of books, in addition to the spread
of internet and modern technologies
which pushed parents away from public libraries or owning books, which paved the
way to weaken the Arabic language among them and their children .
The “United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization” “UNESCO” marked the (23rd ) of
April every year as the “World Book and Copyright Day” to pay a worldwide
tribute to books and authors, which also coincides with the date of the birth
or death of several international prominent
authors, and through encouraging reading among everyone, and in particular youth,
and encouraging exploring the joy of reading, and to gain a renewed respect for
the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and
cultural progress of humanity, specifying this year’s slogan under the title of
“The history of the written word is the history of humanity”.
Female students in the “Mass Communication Department” at the “UAEUniversity” launched lately the “Faselah”
media initiative to encourage reading and return to books, and the “Emirates Writers
Union” (EWU) in “Abu Dhabi” organized a cultural seminar under the title “The
Emirati Writer as a Publisher: review of causes and results", which aims
to understand and analyze the phenomenon of many Emirati writers entering the
field of publishing.
There are many
activities in support of culture, writers and authors in “UAE”, for example,
the “Sheikh Zayed International Prize For the Book” organizes an extensive
cultural program during the “Abu Dhabi International Book Fair” scheduled to
take place from the thirtieth of April until the fifth of May 2014 at the “Abu
Dhabi National Exhibition Centre”, this year the Fair’s guest of honor is “Sweden” while the Arab poet “Al Mutanabbi” is the
focus personality, in addition the “Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival” was
organized between the (15th - 25th ) of April 2014, while
planning is under way for holding the “Sharjah
International Book Fair” in November (2014), where “Sharjah” was chosen as the
“Islamic Culture Capital 2014” within the islamic culture capitals program
supervised and sponsored by the “Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization”
“ISESCO”.
23/04/2014