Publishing and Bookselling: 14th National Book Expo “Books of Russia” kicks off in Moscow

On March 16, 2011 the All-Russian Exhibition Center (Moscow) is opening the 14th National Book Expo-Fair “Books of Russia” which will run till March 21.

The National Expo-Fair “Books of Russia” – is one of the largest annual events taking place in business and cultural life of our country.

The main book industry’s forum is occupying the area of 10 000 m2. It has brought together around 500 participating companies to show its visitors a rich palette of literary, academic, and children’s book publishing of the country – more than 150 000 titles available in different languages of Russia and other countries.

The central exhibitor at the 14th National Book Expo-Fair “Books of Russia” are republics of the North Caucasus: March 17 will see a grand opening of the “Literary Days of the North Caucasus Republics”.

Forum’s program takes into consideration the most urgent and crucial issues of book industry. Among professional events a special interest is attracted by the Third scientific and practical conference focused on problems of book market, which is opening on March 17.

The core of the fair’s professional program brings into focus innovations in book industry. The Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications (Rospechat) has teamed up with “Universitetskaya Kniga” and “Knizhnaya Industriya” magazines and the Expo-Conference of E-Publishing “Knigobyte” in order to hold a two-day conference “E-Publishing and innovations in book industry” (March 16-17).

In addition, on March 16 the Expo-Conference “ON DEMAND” and “KnigaByte” company will co-organize the conference “Digital press – publisher’s effective tool”.

On March 17 within the framework of the roundtable discussion the Russian School Library Association and Rospechat will highlight the problems of cooperation between school libraries and aggregators of information resources.

On March 18 Rospechat together with the Russian Reading Association are holding a roundtable discussion “Innovations in reading promotion”, while the “ParaType” company is going to release its new project – a multi-language font system with support of titular languages of Russia. Another “roundtable” due on March 18 will turn the spotlight on second-hand book selling in 21st c.

The Association of Book Publishers of Russia (ASKI) is holding a roundtable discussion “Creation of a University book market” and a meeting of heads of regional book industry.

The program of the National Expo-Fair “Books of Russia” will also draw attention of participants to memorial dates of spring-2011.

The 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space will be marked with a launch of a book exposition “Books of Russia – to Russian space”. Rospechat jointly with the Russian Federal Space Agency will hold a roundtable discussion “Russian cosmonautics and publishing in Russia” dedicated to pioneers of space exploration.

Orthodox Book Day will be also celebrated as a part of the National Expo-Fair for the second year in row. One of the central expositions is the one organized by the Editorial Board of Russian Orthodox Church with blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.