On the "World Book and Copyright Day”, Emirati Events and Exhibits to return to book

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 (23^rd ) 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 (15^th - 25^th ) 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”.