World Book and Copyright Day is a day entirely dedicated to celebrate the contribution of authors and their books towards the global culture and the association between books and copyright. It is an annual event organized by the UNESCO which is celebrated on the 23rd of April across all parts of the world, with the prime objective to create awareness about reading, publishing/printing and copyrighting. This day was first celebrated 19 years ago by the UNSECO on 23rd April, 1995.
Usually, this day is celebrated by the authors, writers, illustrators and publishers to encourage the common public to read. The historical significance behind celebrating World Book and Copyright Day on 23rd April is to pay tribute to one of the most eminent author Miguel de Cervantes on his death anniversary. Moreover, according to the Gregorian calendar, 23rd April marks the birth and death anniversaries of William Shakespeare, Vladimir Nabokov and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
Besides the name ‘World Book and Copyright Day’, this day is also familiarized by the names viz. ‘World Book Day’ and ‘International Day of the Book’. This day creates an occasion to honour the books and authors worldwide and inspire people at large to develop their interest and discover the inclination towards reading. World Book and Copyright Day is a theme-based event highlighting upon different themes for celebrating each year. The theme for World Book and Copyright Day 2014 is “History and Stories”.
The celebration of this day plays a significant role to inculcate reading habits in the children and develop their interest in them to know about several authors and other relevant things. Besides this, the UNESCO began to celebrate this day in order to protect the intellectual property and copyright. Apart from authors, publishers etc., World Book and Copyright Day is also celebrated by teachers and librarians at various public & private educational institutions. The UNESCO National Commissions organize variety of programmes at UNSECO centres, clubs, schools, libraries and other educational institutions. Activities such as drama, visual arts, workshop programmes etc. are a part of the celebrations.
Tips to celebrate World Book & Copyright Day:
- Tell your child about the importance of books and their use in our daily lives.
- Together with your child indulge in charitable activities such as donating books to the needy children and help them read as well.
- Help your child to make banners with slogans such as ‘books are our best friends’ etc.
- Take your child to the nearest book store and buy her a book of her choice.
- Tell her about the meaning of the word ‘copyright’ that literally means that the writer or the author has the official rights on the content written by him/her.
- Also tell her that you should not copy the content from anywhere as it is illegal, rather read, understand and take inspiration from the writings to create an original content.
- Conduct a ‘read-aloud’ competition for small children in your society so as to encourage them to speak while reading from the book.
- Invite guest author(s) to your locality to throw light upon the significance of books.
- Educate your family members and friends about piracy of books and to give due respect to the author’s copyrighted version by encouraging them to read the original books only.
So, use the above tips to celebrate and generate awareness about World Book and Copyright Day.
