UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY
ONCE AGAIN IN 2016
SPEED DATING FOR BOOKLOVERS ACROSS THE WORLD
Take just a couple of minutes to look at this video. It is a record of an extraordinary series of events – which were really one big event. On April 23 this year ILAB Booksellers worldwide connected with the public and other booksellers in a way that was different to anything that had been done before. No less than 32 ILAB Pop Up Book Fairs, all held during the 24 hours of April 23, all starting one after another across the world embodied so much of what is at the core of ILAB: working together to promote the rare book trade and to improve the world of books for all of us.
On UNESCO World Book & Copyright Day 2015 ILAB booksellers brought the books to the people. They popped up at the most unexpected places, in schools, at train stations, restaurants, pubs, schools, museums, libraries, woolsheds, business clubs, in the streets, on boats, on skyscrapers. For 24 hours they were part of a great chain of books spanning across the world, raising over 10,000 Euros to support literacy worldwide and showing the most beautiful bookish items to people many of whom had never seen or touched such treasures before. It was an amazing experience.
Help us make the 2016 ILAB Pop Up celebrations even bigger. In 2016 World Book & Copyright Day will be the 400th anniversary of the death of both Shakespeare and Cervantes – and ILAB has plans to make this very special.
JOIN US ON 23 APRIL 2016!
ILAB Pop Up Fairs are just that, quick events that pop up and are gone. ILAB Pop Up Fairs are bookish flashmobs, simple, spontaneous, cool - speed dating for book lovers.
With their smaller more informal format they are a nimble, interesting and exciting way of presenting antiquarian bookselling in the 21st century, attracting people far beyond the usual book fair visitors to people who haven’t previously been aware of the fascination of old and rare books.
The ILAB Pop Ups are an amazing means to attract younger people, and they are a proof that that ILAB’s motto is still alive: Amor librorum nos unit.
Now is the perfect time to talk to a few colleagues and organise something in your area. We invite you to use World Book & Copyright Day 2016 day as creatively as you can – promote your books, promote the rare book trade and support literacy, which is at the core of all we do.
Email us now!
Sally Burdon and Barbara van Benthem, Co-conveners ILAB World Book & Copyright Day Celebrations
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THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLERS (ILAB) is the umbrella organization of the professional rare book trade uniting 22 national associations and around 2000 rare book dealers in 34 countries worldwide.
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit ilabpopupbookfairs.blogspot.de and www.unesco.org/new/en/wbcd.
CONTACTS: Sally Burdon - Sally@AsiaBookroom.com | Barbara van Benthem - editor@ilab.org
February 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers, Wikipedia