ABU DHABI - Preparations have begun for the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) that will be held at the Abu Dhabi Exhibition Centre on March 17-22 next year.
Among the new initiatives planned for next year is an area dedicated to antique books, while further emphasis will be laid on fighting piracy and upgrading of professional programmes, especially on the topics of distribution and translation. Education, though, will be one of ADIBF's top concerns.
The facts that nearly half of UAE's 4.4 million population is under 18 years old and the nation's growing demand for skilled and multilingual professionals led the government to allocate one-third of the fiscal budget to education. Therefore, Kitab, the organiser of the book fair, is going to dedicate special space to education-related topics at the ADIBF 2009.
"We look forward to building on the achievements of this year's fair," said Jumaa Al Qubaisi, Director of ADIBF and Kitab.
"In the coming year we will also see a host of exciting developments from Kitab, as the organisation continues its work not only to develop and grow in the Arab market, but also to promote reading and literacy across the region," he added.
Book Crossing is one of the initiatives for encouraging reading among the general public. The idea, "borrowed" from the Frankfurt Book Fair, was launched prior to ADIBF 2008 and it proved to be highly popular.
In this respect, Kitab will distribute several hundred book titles free, which will be registered on a dedicated website. Once the readers finish reading the book, they will pass it on to someone else. All readers and their comments on the read title will be registered on the website.
Last spring, Kitab kept away from the fair all publishers who were involved in piracy and the same policy will continue next year. Furthermore, ADIBF will also organise workshops and talks on the issue of authors' rights in order to raise awareness of copyright provisions.
Book distribution, which is currently very poor in Abu Dhabi with bookshops only offering commercial titles, is also going to receive a long-deserved makeover. In the next few months Kitab will start implementing a new system based on cataloguing titles that would allow professional, easy book ordering, as well as a print-on-demand service and better, faster transportation.