THE UNESCO TITLE OF WORLD BOOK CAPITAL CITY

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UNESCO officially initiated the title of World Book Capital City with resolution 31 C/29, which was passed at the general conference of 2 November 2001.
The programme of the candidates competing for the title must be oriented towards the promotion of the book and the encouragement of reading in the period between two World Days of the Book and Authors’ Rights (23 April 2010 - 23 April 2011). UNESCO has celebrated the World Day of the Book and Authors’ Rights since 1996, with the purpose of publishers, libraries, bookshops, schools, cultural institutions and authors’ societies promoting the lasting importance of books and reading. According to UNESCO data from 2008, this day is marked in more than 100 countries, with a steady increase in the level of interest in recent years. It was in 2008, which UNESCO named as the year of languages, that UNESCO issued the following strong message emphasising the interdependence of languages and books: if a language does not have access to publishers it is excluded from the majority of intellectual life and from society’s economic activities. Hence the necessity of developing multilingualism through translation.

Application Conditions

Two cities from the same region cannot be selected in two subsequent years (Europe and North America are placed in the same region). In view of the fact that Amsterdam was awarded the title in 2008, Ljubljana was able to submit its candidacy for 2010.

In terms of content, there are two application conditions:

• a fully completed application with regard to the UNESCO criteria
• a letter of support from the major of the candidate city.

The deadline for submitting the candidacy for 2010 was 31 March 2008.

The nomination criteria are:

• an appropriately planned programme in terms of topic and time frame, prepared specifically for the World Book Capital City title
• the level of city, regional, national and international inclusion in and influence on the programme
• the quality and quantity of one-off or repeating activities executed by the city in cooperation with national and international societies that represent writers, publishers, bookshops, and libraries, while completely respecting the various players within the book chain
• the quantity and quality of all other projects promoting books and encouraging reading
• the alignment of the programme with the principles of freedom of the expression, publication and distribution of information, as advocated by UNESCO, by Articles 19 and 27 of the Declaration of Human Rights and by the Florence agreement.

On applying, each city undertakes an obligation to:

• include UNESCO and all of the three founding societies on all levels in the programme and its presentation: The International Publishers Association (IPA), The International Booksellers Federation (IBF) and The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
• provide UNESCO with a final report about the executed programme. During the time of nomination, UNESCO also has the right to undertake an evaluation programme itself.

What has been the nature of the programmes of the World Book Capital Cities to date: Madrid 2001, Alexandria 2002, New Delhi 2003, Antwerp 2004, Montreal 2005, Torino 2006, Bogota 2007, Amsterdam 2008 and Beirut 2009?
From the available information it is clear that the programmes have been very different in terms of content and scope, while in recent years they have expanded and become more oriented towards the UNESCO principles. The programme in Amsterdam was focused on the execution of a congress concerning authors’ rights, scientific literature publishing, multiculturalism in literature creativity and books for children. Within the framework of their programme, the organisers foresaw the opening of new libraries and cultural centres and the execution of numerous cultural events connected with the book and literature. In Beirut the organisers linked the project closely with embassies present in Lebanon; however, it will be necessary to wait for an evaluation of their project as the assessment process has just begun.

The Ljubljana Candidacy
Ljubljana prepared its candidacy in the year that Slovenia celebrates the 500th anniversary of the birth of Primož Trubar, the author of the first Slovene book and the founder of Slovene literary language. At its 34th General Conference on 16 October 2007, UNESCO added this important anniversary to its official list of anniversaries.
The candidacy procedures for the title of World Book Capital City are led by a UNESCO committee, which first awarded the title in 2001.
In addition to Ljubljana, candidacies were submitted by six other cities: Vienna, Guadalajara, Lisbon, Riga, St Petersburg and Wellington.

On 18 June 2008, the members of the committee, M. Gomez from The International Publishers Association (IPA), Françoise Dubruille from The International Booksellers Federation (IBF) and Petre Lor from The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) named Ljubljana as the World Book Capital City 2010, for the twelve month period between the celebration of two World Days of the Book and Authors’ Rights, from 23 April 2010 to 23 April 2011. The president of the selection committee was the representative from IPA.
Ljubljana was selected due to a soundly prepared application and a varied and balanced programme that enjoys broad and enthusiastic support from all of the protagonists in the book market - publishers, bookshops and libraries – and is oriented towards the promotion of the book and the encouragement of reading.