Book mission to the Odesa region

On May 24-26 the Maxim Gorki Odesa National Scientific Library and the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Sellers will hold the 13th All-Ukrainian Exhibition Forum “Ukrainian Books in the Odesa Region.” Started in 2000, the event was aimed at promoting the Ukrainian language in the region, enhancing its functioning in all areas of public life, creating proper conditions for Ukrainian book publishing and replenishing the libraries in south Ukraine. Certainly, the task set by the organizers is still topical. According to the information from the Ivan Fedorov Book Chamber, last year only 22,826 books and booklets were published in 46,565,700 copies which is slightly more than one copy per Ukrainian. The reasons for such an unsatisfactory situation with domestic book publishing have been known for a long while: the lack of a long-term state strategy for the further development of publishing, vulnerability of our book market, lack of a proper range of books in the sales network and poorly developed sales network, as well as people’s impoverishment. These problems can be resolved only with the active support from the state, in particular, adoption of the State Task Program of Promotion of the Ukrainian Publishing and Reading for 2013-17. That is why the roundtable called “Ukrainian Book Publishing 2012: Going Downstairs” will take a proper place in the program of the exhibit forum. Its participants will include the Director of the Ivan Fedorov Book Chamber Mykola Senchenko, President of the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Sellers Oleksandr Afonin, head of the department for publishing at the State Committee for Television and Radio Oleksii Kononenko, leading publishers and book sellers, librarians and public figures. There will be also meetings with writers Larysa Denysenko, Anton Kushnir, Volodymyr Rutkivsky, and poet Taras Fediuk. The special event will be the donation of a rare clerical book Triodion published in 1689-90 in Lviv to the funds of the Maxim Gorki Odesa National Scientific Library by an official from the Odesa Oblast Council. On May 25 the organizers will hold a festival in Izmail.