World Book and Copyright Day 2018

23 April

23 April was first proclaimed as World Book and Copyright Day by UNESCO in 1995.

This day is observed by millions of people in over 100 countries, in hundreds of voluntary organisations, schools, public bodies, professional groups and private businesses. In this lengthy period, World Book and Copyright Day has won over a considerable number of people from every continent and all cultural backgrounds to the cause of books and copyright. It has enabled them to discover, make the most of and explore in greater depth a multitude of aspects of the publishing world: books as vectors of values and knowledge, and depositories of the intangible heritage; books as windows onto the diversity of cultures and as tools for dialogue; books as sources of material wealth and copyright-protected works of creative artists. All of these aspects have been the subject of numerous awareness-raising and promotional initiatives that have had a genuine impact. There must nevertheless be no let-up in these efforts.

Since 2000, World Book and Copyright Day has inspired another initiative of professional organisations which receives the assistance of UNESCO and backing from States: World Book Capital City. Each year a city is chosen which undertakes to maintain, through its own initiatives, the impetus of the Day’s celebrations until 23 April of the following year. Almost all the regions of the world, in turn, have already been involved in this process, which thus transforms the celebration of books and copyright into a recurrent activity, extending still further the geographical and cultural influence of books.

Over recent years, the World Day has shown that it can be a potent symbol for the launch of major support operations, in particular in Latin America and Africa.

The World Book Day (WBD) national celebrations in South Africa are coordinated by the Centre for the Book, an Outreach Unit of the National Library of South Africa, mandated to promote a culture of reading, writing and publishing in all local languages and easy access to books for all. The objectives of World Book Day Celebrations are:

  • To raise awareness about the importance of reading
  • To reach out and give people access to books
  • To educate people to take care for their library facilities
  • To celebrate books
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