Jozi Book Fair at the Gothenburg Book Fair

Jozi Book Fair set up a modest stall; there are almost 1,000 exhibitors and great authors participating at the fair. With more than 3,800 seminars and exhibitor activities, an event took place every 48 seconds. There were many people and many books were being sold at sale prices.

While the first two days focus was on the publishing trade, the fair was open to the public with different prices to attend the exhibitions and the seminar programme. On Sunday there was free entrance to all seminars.

For the JBF what was striking was the number of teachers, school principals, librarians and other professionals attending the fair. For instance, there were all kinds of librarians - for the blind, the youth, children, schools and archives. This is particularly because the local government supports the fair and understands the importance of reading as an investment in people. Workers get time off and their seminar tickets paid to enable them to participate in the fair, and ultimately improve the quality of their services to communities.

Jozi Book Fair starts on 23 October with a seminar on publishing, hosted by the Gothenburg Book Fair and JBF. It will be followed by a conference on the role of libraries on 24 October 2013. The Book Fair event itself is on 25 and 26 October 2013, at Museum Africa, Newtown.

For more, go to www.jozibookfair.org.za.