SIBF 2018 held successfully with 2.23 million visitors

The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2018 witnessed 2.23 million visitors including 230,000 school students, who came in looking for books and entertainment at the region’s biggest literary and cultural extravaganza.

The fair’s activities also managed to generate unrivalled global interaction on social media, and received a whopping 2.7 billion impressions on its social platforms (Instagram: 219,231,710, Twitter: 1,513,215,412, Facebook: 1,013,000,112). SIBF’s hashtag #SIBF18 reached 300 million users, and the official social media accounts generated this activity through 70,000 social media posts.

The 37th edition of SIBF was home to 1,874 publishers from 77 countries offering 20 million books reflecting 1.6 million individual titles, of which 80,000 were seen at the fair for the first time. It also entertained people with a lineup of 1,800 events featuring 472 presenters and guests who flew in from around the world.

Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, the 11-day book fair saw participation of government officials, authors, intellectuals and publishers from the UAE and the world.

Japan was hosted as the Guest of Honour with a rich programme of events, and Azzeldine Mihoubi, Algeria’s Minister of Culture, was named this edition’s Cultural Personality of the Year.

During the book fair’s final weekend, organizers extended the working hours until midnight to accommodate the large numbers that were visiting to meet their favorite authors, buy their favorite books, and have them signed by a few authors in attendance. SIBF 2018 hosted 200 book signing ceremonies.

This year, the fair saw the fifth edition of the annual SIBF/ALA Library Conference organized in partnership between the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) and the American Library Association (ALA). The conference was attended by over 400 librarians and academics from the region and the world, who partook in over 25-panel discussions and networking events, to discuss the changing role of libraries in the era of digitization.

The three-day SIBF Publishers Conference, which is held as a precursor to the 11-day event, engaged 486 publishers, who held 3,000 “Matchmaking Meetings”. These meetings resulted in the signing of 2,884 translation rights agreements. Submission deadline for SIBF Translation Grant to be in the running until February 26, 2019.

HE Ahmed Al Ameri, Chairman of SBA, said, “With each successive edition of the fair, we see a substantial increase in volume and quality of titles. This speaks volumes about the success of Sharjah’s cultural movement, led by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah.”