46th Annual Hebrew Book Week

Hi Everyone!

Tonight begins the 46th annual Hebrew Book Week.Over the next 10 days there will be book related events in every major city in Israel. In Jerusalem, the main book fair will take place in the old train station.The events are free.

The Jewish National and University Library (JNUL) has collated data about books published in Israel during 2006. The JNUL is the legal deposit library of Israel, and receives, according to the "Book Act", two copies of each book, journal, cassette or disk published in Israel. The publications are catalogued in the JNUL catalogue, in the Israel national bibliography and in the Israel Union List.

From their website:
"During the previous year 8,608 new Israeli titles were registered by the Legal Deposit Department of the JNUL: 6,840 books, 915 new periodicals, and 650 non-print titles, such as CDs and cassettes. In addition, 12,874 issues of current periodicals were received in JNUL. The JNUL catalogue is the most comprehensive in Israel, and includes the vast majority of the titles published in Israel."

You can see additional information at their website at:
http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/eng/lgd-statistics-2007.html

I plan to pay a visit to the Jerusalem book fair next week. I visited these fairs in the past and not only is it fun to leaf through new books and get discounts - it is also great to see Am Yisrael expressing themselves (both sellers and buyers) as the "people of the book".

Enjoy!
Jacob