El-Feki Inaugurates 16th Edition of Book Fair of Library of Alexandria

Dr. Mustafa El-Feki, Director of the Library of Alexandria, inaugurated today, Monday, the sixteenth edition of the Book Fair of the library.

The book fair will run during the period from 16 to 30 August; it is held in cooperation with the Egyptian General Book Authority and the Egyptian and Arab Publishers Union.

The opening of the book fair was attended by Maj. Gen. Mohamed Al Sharif, Governor of Alexandria, and Dr. Haitham El- Hajj Ali, President of the Egyptian Book Organization, Dr. Nazir Ayyad, Secretary- General of the Islamic Research Academy and representative of the Grand Imam, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Saeed Abdu, President of the Egyptian Publishers Union, and Mohamed Rashad, President of the Arab Publishers Union.

Dr. Mustafa El-Feki stressed that the book fair is one of the windows through which the Library of Alexandria overlooks the cultural community.

The book fair is witnessing a great turnout from all age groups in society to follow up on everything new offered by publishing houses.

He added that the library considers the book fair as an annual festival and a tradition that has continued for years and will continue for years to come.

He explained that the library preferred to organize the book fair according to the minimum number of attendees, rather than stopping it due to the spread of the Corona pandemic.

On his part; Maj. Gen Mohamed Al-Sharif, Governor of Alexandria, saluted Dr. Mustafa E-Feqi and the library management for the effort exerted by organizing many cultural events, pointing out the great turnout of young people to attend the book fair, which reminds of the importance of the book.

Dr. Haitham El-Hajj Ali, President of the Egyptian Book Authority, said that the library book fair is one of the most important focal points of cooperation between the library and the Egyptian state, revealing that the book fair proves that the book is an essential pillar of culture, to break the barrier of the saying “the Egyptian people do not read.”

He referred to a report published by the UK newspaper “The Independent” on readability in Egypt which is ranked fifth in the world, with a reading rate of 750 million hours every week. He stressed that the Library of Alexandria is the most important international institution in Egypt that cares about culture.

While Dr. Nazir Ayyad, Secretary-General of the Islamic Research Academy and representative of the Grand Imam, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, said that the book fair is being held at an important time to push back the slander that Egypt is exposed to, and to emphasize the harmony and coexistence that the Egyptian state enjoys at the present time.

He noted that the Al-Azhar Foundation is keen to participate in the book fair for the third year in a row.

Saeed Abdu, President of the Egyptian Publishers Association, explained that the union is keen on annual participation in the book fair since its first organizing role.

He proposed to allocate a street in all the capitals of the governorates to set up libraries, and the beginning would be from the Alexandria governorate, where he presented the idea to Al-Sharif, stressing that reading is one of the most important pillars in building a person.

Abdu stressed that the publishing industry is going through the worst conditions in its contemporary history, as more than 35% of publishers stopped due to the Corona pandemic, which showed many faults in the publishing industry, which requires a lot of effort to save it.

On his part, Mohamed Rashad, Head of the Arab Publishers Union, said that the union has been cooperating with the library in organizing the book fair since its first kickoff in 2002.

Rashad added that this appeared through the expansion of Arab participation in the book fair, and its tendency to issue several books on the city of Alexandria, and a number of scientific and academic encyclopedias, so that the library would be a global scientific and cultural beacon."

He stressed that that the Coronavirus is a great challenge after the decline of Arab publishing by a rate ranging from 50 to 75%, and 35% of publishing houses stopped.

After the conference, El-Feki and the participants toured the book fair halls to know the publishing houses and participating institutions, and then the book fair was opened to the public.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar