No.

71 Anatomy of an
International Year
Book Year - 1972

Unesco
 Request for permission to reproduce the Reports in full or in part should be addressed to Unesco’s Office of
Publications.The following reports and papers have so far been issued and are obtainable from National
Distributors of Unesco Publications or from the Department of Mass Communication,Unesco, Place de
Fontenoy,75700 Paris.

REPORTS AND PAPERS ON MASS COMMUNICATION

Number Numbei
-
21 Current Mass Communication Research I Bibliography of 53 Communication satellites for education,science and
Books and Articles on Mass Communication Published culture, 1967.
since I January 1955, December 1956. 54 8mm filmfor adult audiences,1968.
22 Periodicalsfor N e w Literates: Editorial Methods, June 55 Televisionfor higher technieal education of the employed.
1951. (out of print). A firstreport on a pilot project in Poland, 1969.
23 Cultural Radio Broadcasts. S o m e Experiences,December 56 B o o k development in Africa. Problems and perspectives,
1956.(out of print), 1969.
24 Periodicals for N e w Literates. Seven Case Histories, 51 Script writing for short films, 1969.
November 1957 (out of print). 58 Removing taxes on knowledge, 1969.
25 Adult Education Groups and Audio-Visual 7echniques, 59 Mass media in socizty. The need of research, 1910.
1958. 60 Broadcasting from space, 1970.
26 The Kinescope and Adult Education, 1958 (out of print). 61 Principles of cultural co-operation, 1910.
21 VisualAids in Fundamental Education and Community 62 Radio and television in literacy, 1911.
Development, 1959 (out of print). 63 The mass media in a violent world, 1911.
28 Film Programmes for the Young, 1959 (out of print). 64 The r6le of film in development. 191 1.
29 Film-making on a Low Budget, 1960 (out of print). 65 The practice ofMass Communication: S o m e lessons from
30 Developing Mass Media in Asia, 1960.(out of print). research research. 1912
31 The Influence of the Cinema on Children and Adolescents. 66 A guide to satellite communication. 1912.
A n Annotated International Bibliography, 1961.(out of print). 61 Televisionfor Higher TechnicalEducation of Workers.
32 Film and Television in the Service of Opera and Ballet FinalReport on a Pilot Project in Poland. 1913.
and of Museums, 196 1 (out of print). 68 CinematographicInstitutions. 1913.
33 Mass Media in the Developing Countries. A Unesco Report 69 Mass media in an African context. 1913
to the United Nations, 1961.(out of print).
34 Film Production by International Co-operation,196 1.
-
IO Television traffic a one-way street?
35 World Film Directory.Agencies Concerned with Educational,
Scientificand Cultural Films,1962.(out of print).
36 Methods of Encouraging the Production and Distribution
of Short Films for Theatrical Use, 1962.(out of print),
31 Developing Information Media in Africa. Press,Radio,
Film,Television, 1962.(out of print).
38 Social Education through Television, 1963.(out of print).
39 The Teaching Film in Primary Education, 1963.(out of print).
40 Study of the Establishment of National Centres for
Cataloguing of Films and Television Programmes. 1963
(out of print).
41 Space Communication and the Mass Media, 1964.(out of print).
42 Screen education. Teaching a criticalapproach to cinema
and television,1964.
43 The Effects of Television on Children and Adolescents,
1964.
44 Selected List of Catalogues for Short Filmsand Filmstrips,
1963 Edition. 1965.
45 Professional Training for Mass Communication, 1965.(out of prinIt).
46 Rural M i m e o Newspapers, 1965.
41 Books for the Developing Countries: Asia,Africa, 1965.
48 Radio Broadcasting serves rural development, 1965.
49 Radio and television in the service of education and
development in Asia, 1961.
50 Television and the social education of w o m e n , 1961.
51 A n African experiment in radio forums for rural develop-
ment. Ghana. 196411965. 1968.
52 Book development in Asia.A report on the production
and distribution of books in the region, 1961.
Anatomyof an
International Year
Book Year - 1972

Unesco
ISBN 92-3-101186-3
French Edition ISBN 92-3-201186-7

Published by The Unesco Press,

7,Phce de Fontenoy, 75700Paris (France)
Printed in the workshops of Unesco

0 Unesco 1974 [BI

Printed in France
 Preface
Under Unesco sponsorship, International Book
Year was celebrated during 1972 in every corner
of the world. This truly global effort on behalf
of books and reading not only provided an
opportunity for governments, public and private
bodies, and individual human beings to increase
their understanding of the problems posed by
production, distribution, and utilization of books;
it brought forth, at the same time, a wide variety
of practical measures, many of which have been
retained as part of a long-term campaign.
-
If it is still too early supposing that it will
ever be possible to do so - to evaluate fully the
results of this many-faceted activity in which
nearly every M e m b e r State of Unesco and a con-
siderable number of international non-govern-
mental organizations participated actively, at
least it is possible to draw from the experience
valuable lessons for the orientation of future
programmes of book promotion, as well as for
the organization of further campaigns of the
same kind.
It was in this spirit that the General Con-
ference of Unesco, meeting in Paris in October
and November of 1972 for its seventeenth ses-
sion, invited the Director-,Generalto publish
"a digest and appraisal of initiatives taken and
techniques employed during International Book
Year with a view to making the most advan-
tageous use of this information for the future".
The present study was prepared in response
to this request. In contrast to a preliminary re-
port submitted by the Director-Generalof Unesco
to the seventeenth session of the Conference
(document17 C/75), its purpose is not to recount
in detail the many and varied activities carried
out by the international community. Rather, its
intention is to indicate the main lines of action
undertaken, and to provide an analysis of the
means employed to accomplish the objectives
assigned to the campaign.
In consequence, this report contains only
occasional referencesto the individual initiatives
of M e m b e r States and organizations. W h e n
specific efforts are cited it is to highlight a parti-
cular kind of action, significant to the overall im-
plementation of Book Year programmes, but not
necessarily the major element of the programme
of a particular country or institution.
As its title indicates, the present study is
an attempt above all to examine the anatomy of
an internationalyear. It is intended as much to
furnish a basis for reflexion and action to those
responsible for promotion campaigns as it is to
inform the public at large of the significance of
this particular world-wide campaign which the
Unesco General Conference felt "was so success-
ful that it already appears necessary to continue
on a permanent basis the effort made in order
to promote books and reading for all throughout
the world".
Our hope is that all those in governments
and institutions of every kind who spared no ef-
fort to insure that the slogan "Books for All"
became reality will find in the following pages
the echo of the contribution that they brought to
the collective effort with so much enthusiasm
and efficacity.
3
 Table of contents

Page

PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

A. THE REASONS WHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Growing Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Hidden Hunger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Faster and Cheaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

B. ORIGINS OF BOOK YEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Regional Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Books and Economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Another International Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
A Programme of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

C. THE MECHANICS OF BOOK YEAR . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Planners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
A Symbol for the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
In Member States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
O n the International Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

D. CARRYING OUT THE P R O G R A M M E S . . . . . . . . . . 15

1. Development of Publishing and Printing Facilities . . . . . 15
2. Development of Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Book Fairs and Exhibitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Distribution of Books to Children . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Distribution of Books to Adults and Institutions . . . . . . 18

3. Development of Literature and Book-Awareness . . . . . . 19

Encouragement of Translations . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Preservation of Oral Literature . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Literary Prizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Reinforcing Literacy; Adult Education . . . . . . . . . 20
Lectures and Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Organizations and Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

5
 Page

4 . Promotional Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Press and other media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Contests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Bibliographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5. Operation Book Year inside Unesco . . . . . . . . . . 24

6. Co-operation with the Book World . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7 . Research for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

E. A PROGRAMME FOR THE FUTURE . . . . . . . . . . 27

Books for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The InternationalBook Committee . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Book Needs for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Future Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

F . AN APPRAISAL OF BOOK YEAR . . . . . . . . . . . 30

G . THE LESSONS OF AN INTERNATIONAL Y E A R : A SUMMING-UP 32

Advance Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The "Year" Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Selection of Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Sharing Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Multilevel Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
A Framework for Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
N o Single Yardstick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

APPENDIX
Resolutions adopted by Unesco General Conference . . . . . 35

6
 A.The reasons w h y
In a way it can be said that International Book
Year came not a moment too soon. The develop-
ment of new media and the rapid progress in
-
techniques for producing old media advances
which have been referred to as "The Book Revolu-
-
tion" were leaving their mark on the rates of
progress of the industrial nations. And yet signi-
ficant segments in these nations, and large parts
of the rest of the world, were not sharing in the
fruits of this revolution: those in the developed
nations unaware of the advantages of the access
to literature, those in developing nations with
less than ideal access to the printed world.
GROWING N E E D S
Experts in all fields of communications - and
many of them were consulted in preparation for
IBY 1972 - agreed that nothing about the new
techniques which had been by-products of modern
technology diminished in any way the need for
books (books being define'd as all forms of writ-
ten support for thought, including diverse kinds
of reading material such as periodicals). If any-
thing, mass communications increased the need
for books as a more permanent and easy-to-
handle form of transmission of thought; mass
communications increased book hunger.
Meanwhile the gap between the major book-
publishing countries and the developing world
grew wider. Four out of five new books published
each year were being produced by a handful of
countries. Out of an estimated seven to eight
billion copies published annually, only a small
percentage came from developing nations, whose
consciousness of their needs was growing every
day. The situation in Africa, where regional
production amounted to less than one-quarter of
requirements and the imperatives of foreign
trade and currency exchange made importing dif-
ficult, was described as "virtual book famine".
In another developing region, Latin America,
where production had been coming closer to re-
quirements, difficulties in transportation and
communications continued to complicate the pro-
cess of reaching potential users of books. An-
other statistic: nearly 70 per cent of the popula-
tion of our earth lives in areas producing less
than 20 per cent of the total of available books.
While the number of titles published annually
had doubled in less than a generation, Asia,
Africa, Latin America, and the Arab States ac-
counted for less than one title of every five pro-
duced. In 20 years their share of world output
had dropped from 24 to 19 per cent.
In other areas it was not so much a case of
book hunger as of a low literacy level, or the
abandoning of reading after the school years, or
the low incomes of the population making it dif-
ficult for individuals to purchase books. The
consequences of widespread book famine were
spelled out in the Mohonk Declaration, at the
conclusion of a meeting bringing together re-
presentatives of the book professions with a
group of economists and educators, held in N e w
York, during International Book Year:
-
"The time has come indeed is overdue for -
a substantial increase in the proportion of
national and international expenditures for the
creation, production and distribution of books
and other materials for learning. In the devel-
oping countries, hundreds of millions of lit-
erates have no meaningful access to books or
libraries and 900,000,000 persons are illit-
-
erate altogether a number that is growing,
not diminishing. This condition stands as a
massive barrier to social and economic pro-
gress. No modern economy can be erected
on a basis of illiteracy. M e n and w o m e n who
cannot use reading to master new skills and
to prepare themselves for new r6les cannot
participate productively in a modernizing eco-
nomy, nor can they hope for personal dignity
7
 and control over their own lives in a time of
change".
THE HIDDEN HUNGER
More surprisingly, at least to those not in daily
contact with the book world, was the hidden hung-
er for books in the more advanced industrial
nations. Elements of the book trade within these
countries had been compiling statistics of their
own. Significant groups of these countries' citi-
zens, it was found, had no experience with books.
In one of Europe's most literate nations, birth-
place of some of the best known literary classics
of ancient and modern times, it was discovered
that 57 per cent of thepopulation never read books.
The same country probed further and discovered
that if it had a reading population of only 43 per
cent, the situation was not dissimilar in several
other advanced industrial nations which had
bothered to compile statistics:55 per cent in one,
43 per cent in another, and then 40 per cent, 35
per cent, 33 per cent - this last figure applying
to a nation which was then leading its region in
industrial growth.
It didn't seem to matter what the reasons
were: the aggressive nature of new media, with
popular television programmes filling leisure
time that might otherwise be available for read-
ing, or the development of an automobile weekend
civilization. Books were not reaching all those
a
who would benefit from their use in the countries
of advanced technology and leisure-timeciviliza-
tion.
F A S T E R AND CHEAPER
-
Paradoxically, books were or could be made -
more easily available to readers in all parts of
the world. N e w technology, innovative packaging,
had produced the paperback volume, often re-
duced to the format of a pocket book printed by
inexpensive processes on inexpensive paper. In
many areas these books were being printed and
distributed by means and methods used by news-
papers and magazines, whose press runs might
be measured in millions of copies, delivered
within the day to all parts of a country (and if a
large European or African state was able to dis-
patch a daily newspaper to all parts of the nation
within a 24-hour period, why couldn't needed
books get the same treatment? 1.
It was a time, too, when books were being
distributed by many means beyond the bookstore:
to railroad station and corner kiosks, for exam-
ple; by mail; by door to door visits. Free dis-
tribution of books for schoolchildren was expand-
ing, while libraries grew wheels, invaded rural
areas long cut off from a supply of reading
materials. Still, countries rich in books ap-
peared to grow richer still, the gap widening
still further between nations developing and
developed.
 B. Origins of book year
Recognizing the primordial importance of the
book in every form of educational and cultural
exchange, its indispensable r61e in development -
whether of agricultural specialists or industrial
engineers, scientists or statesmen, students or
simple citizens - the delegates to Unesco's
General Conference had launched a programme
of book development as early as 1964. One pro-
duct of this concern was Unesco sponsorship of a
study of "The Book Revolution" by Professor
Robert Escarpit and his Centre de Sociologie des
Faits Litteraires at Bordeaux, published in 1965.
A n overall description of how books are made
and read the world over, this work provided a
first indication of the disparity in availability
from one continent to another.
The next requirement was going to be a cen-
sus of actual needs, for one couldn't attack book
hunger without knowing how much it affected
particular nations and regions. Step One, then,
was the series of four regional meetings on book
development - the first, for the Asian region,
held in Tokyo in 1966, the second, for Africa, in
Accra in 1968, the third, for Latin America, in
Bogota in 1969, and the last in Cairo, for the
Arab States in 1972.
In a sense these meetings were the precur-
sors of International Book Year. They provided
experts with a clearer picture of the needs, al-
lowed specialists in various educational disci-
plines or in the diverse sectors of the book indus-
try to meet one another to listen to each other's
problems. The facts brought to light during the
preparation of the regional meetings and during
the actual discussions were the raw material of
the successful campaign drawn up on the inter-
national, national, and community levels for
IBY 1972.
THE REGIONAL M E E T I N G S
The findings brought to the attention of partici-
pants at the Accra meeting, for example, were
to be echoed in the information and statistics
produced for the meetings in other regions of the
globe. The meeting of experts on book develop-
ment in Africa, held from 13 to 19 February
1968, brought together 30 publishers, educators,
librarians, and government officials, with an-
other 40 experts and observers from other re-
gions and the international organizations. They
listened to sobering statistics: With 9.4 per
cent of the world's population, Africa produced
only 1. 5 per cent of its books. In fact only 20 of
the region's 34 countries produced any books at
all, seven of them publishing fewer than 20 titles
annually, only five publishing more than 100 per
year. Africa's Der capita production of 1 /30th
of a book was contrasted with the figures for
some of the major publishing countries: 7.7
books per capita in one of them, 6.2 in another,
5 in a third. Obviously the low level of book
production made the region dependent on imports,
and these imports represented three times the
number of books produced in the region.
If this importing was made difficult by the
lack of foreign exchange resources, it was also
felt that reading materials represented "a high
content of capital formation". It was a dilemma
faced by African nations every day, and which
would be solved only when more books were pro-
duced in the region.
B O O K S AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Concretely, then, the regional development
meetings made it clear that book development is
a prerequisite for long-term educational and
even economic development. The meetings
suggested the effectiveness of regional and
9
international co-operation in the book field, and
indicated the potentialities for unified action by
the book world. These early meetings of book
trade professionals were going to facilitate their
joint efforts for and during IBY 1972; perhaps
the regional book development meetings convinced
some of them, for the first time, that c o m m o n
goals could indeed be pursued by pooling forces
and resources.
Another factor not to be dismissed was the
clear indication, underscored during the regional
conferences, that advanced countries were willing
to help in the development of the publishing capa-
bilities of younger nations.
And if these regional meetings attempted to
look ahead, drawing up targets for book produc-
tion in the decades to come, they were also to
cope with the here and now. It was decided to
create regional book development centres whose
tasks would include the search for overall solu-
tions to the problems posed by the production and
distribution of books, the encouragement of sound
national book industries, the setting up of courses
and on-the-job training facilities for the book in-
dustry, the carrying out of research and the col-
lection of information and statistics, Centres
were established for Asia at Karachi and Tokyo,
and for Latin America at Bogota. A Centre for
the Arab States, initially set up on a national
basis, was being transformed into a full regional
centre while negotiations were progressing for
one or perhaps two centres in Africa. Profes-
sionals in book production, distribution, and
utilization, consulted by Unesco, called for an
international effort to focus attention on the im-
portant (if changing) r61e of books in society.
ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL YEAR
When the suggestion was made to mobilize all
those concerned in book development for a year-
long campaign on the scale of the globe, it was
an idea whose time had come. This is not to say
that approval was wholehearted at first. For
there was an occasional skeptical reaction as
well, even within Unesco's governing bodies and
secretariat. The doubters felt that a campaign
in favour of something as highly desirable as
book reading would be superfluous, at best preach-
ing to, and reaching, the already converted.
What actually happened was that the subject
took over, broke down the imagined barriers,
overcame hesitations. O n the proposal of the
m e m b e r from the USSR, Unescols Executive
Board invited the Director-General to draw up
suggestions for an international campaign, re-
commended that the General Conference consider
the desirability of proclaiming 1972 as Inter-
national Book Year. In 1970, the Sixteenth
10
General Conference of Unesco examined the pro-
g r a m m e for InternationalBook Year submitted
by the Director-General, a 20-nationworking
group discussed it in more detail, then prepared
a comprehensive resolution for the General Con-
ference which was to be adopted by acclamation.
A PROGRAMME OF ACTION
Yet a case study, an anatomy, of this eventful
international year must take note of one particular
document which was to become the practical
handbook of IBY 1972, an essential tool in the
hands of Unesco National Commissions, national
cultural officials, book trade professionals. "A
Programme of Action" was a small-format,
white-covered, softcover pamphlet bearing the
IBY symbol (itself to be discussed in more de-
tail later on). Only 24 pages in length, it crystal-
lized the discussions held with experts from
such organizations as the InternationalC o m m u -
nity of Booksellers Associations, International
Confederation of Societies of Authors and C o m -
posers, International Federation for Documenta-
tion, International Federation of Library Asso-
ciations, International Publishers Association.
Contributions came from representatives of the
regional meetings, from the leading publishing
countries. And of course it included the work of
Unesco's own Secretariat, which itself would
draw upon the conclusions of the book develop-
ment meetings: clear and unmistakable evidence
of book hunger, obvious and hidden.
This pamphlet, then, would set forth not
only themes (e.g., "Developing reading materials
for new literates" or "Increasing the resources
and activities of school libraries and cultural
centres") but a list of suggested campaigns and
other activities. The suggestions themselves
took up only 13 small pages, but these pages
were to serve as an aide-memoire to the wide
world of the book-concerned, to governments,
non-governmentalorganizations, including pro -
fessional groupings, publishers, booksellers,
authors, librarians and documentalists, book
designers and manufacturers, but also to
Unesco's various departments which, during
Book Year, would sponsor meetings, carry out
research, and above all provide a continuous
stream of publications, bulletins, articles in
Unesco periodicals, promotional support
materials in every medium at the disposal of
international organizations. If some of the sug-
gestions in "A Programme of Action" are idealis-
tic, assuming and calling for benevolence, even
philanthropy, they were meant to be. Were they
carried out? W e shall soon see what was done.
IBY 1972 was formally activated by Resolu-
tion 4.121 of the Unesco General Conference,
a document which was to spell out the guiding
themes of the international effort. The text of the
resolution defined the r61e to be played by the
international community:
"(a) to initiate and carry out programmes of
activities designed to promote the writing,
production, circulation and distribution of
books and to make the International Book
Year a national reading year;
(b) to establish committees, in co-operation
with National Commissions, for the pre-
paration and celebration of the Internation-
al Book Year at the national level;
(c) to formulate the principles of book policies,
taking into account the objectives of Unesco
and the particular rdle of the printed word
for the transmission of knowledge and the
stimulation of ideas;
(d) to encourage an appreciation, particularly
among young people, of the best in thought,
philosophy and literature by makin books
generally and cheaply available". (i5
1. The complete text of this resolution will be
found in the Appendix.
11
 C.The mechanics of book year

"Six years in the making ... a cast of thous-
ands ... a galaxy of world-renowned perform-
ers ... InternationalBook Year 1972 sounds
in retrospect like a Hollywood spectacular.
And yet, as in many blurbs, there is more
than a kernel of truth in the billing". - F r o m
an article in Scholarly Publishing.
The year got under way on 1 January 1972; the
starting bell was a message to the world by
Unesco's Director-General Ren6 Maheu. A n
understanding of the mechanisms of this world
campaign requires a brief summary of the many
things that occurred before the year was official-
ly opened.
Before IBY 1972 began, as w e have seen,
three of the four regional book development con-
ferences had taken place. Before IBY 1972, too,
a planning committee had met at Unesco head-
quarters in Paris (April 1971) consisting of 24
experts drawn from the principal international
non-governmentalorganizations in the book field,
from developing nations where the regional meet-
ings were taking place, and from the major pub-
lishing countries. They considered the projects
already in the discussion stage in Member States,
National Commissions and other national bodies,
and within the non-governmental organizations,
took note of the fact that internationalprofession-
al organizations were engaged in drawing up a
Charter of the Book.
THE PLANNERS
During this pre-1972 period representatives of
the professional organizations of the book world
were joining together in a unique body called the
Support Committee. These representatives of
publishers and authors, booksellers and libra-
rians, and all those with a r61e to play in creating
and distributing reading materials, met in
Brussels in October 1971 (after having partici-
pated in the decisions taken at the April 1971
Unesco House meeting). They were to convene
again during the course of IBY 1972, in Vienna
and in N e w York. These were the people who
make and handle books; their chairman was a
representative of some of the significant end-
users, the libraries (he was Herman Liebaers,
President of the International Federation of Lib-
rary Associations, who was later to receive the
Inter-ProfessionalAward-1973 "in recognition
of his outstanding contribution to International
Book Year". ) Before and during Book Year, then,
these practical and experienced m e n and women
were involved with details of planning and imple-
-
mentation clearly a factor in the pursuit of a
campaign which might have died a-borning if it
had been left on a more abstract plane.
THE THEMES
In the light of observations and recommendations
put forward during preparatory consultations
with the groups and individuals most directly
concerned, it was decided to focus IBY activities
on a few major themes, whose number would be
reduced to the absolute minimum in order to al-
low a concentration of efforts. At the same time
they would be conceived so as to cover the various
areas demanding support from the international
community.
The four themes which were eventually
adopted as a framework for this joint enterprise,
placed under the slogan "Books for All", were
the following:
(a) Encouragement of authorship and translation,
with due regard to copyright,
(b) Production and distribution of books, inclu-
ding the development of libraries;
(c) Promotion of the reading habit;

12
(d) Books in the service of education, inter- including posters and pamphlets. In many cases,
national understanding and peaceful co- the Book Year programme was carried out direct-
operation. lg by a M e m b e r State'sNational Commission for
International Book Year, when it appeared on UnesCo.
Often there was an official proclamation of a
1 January 1972, was an event that had been national book year running concurrently with
prepared for.
International Book Year. There were notable
messages by chiefs of state or governments or by
cultural officials. These pronouncements were
A SYMBOL FOR THE YEAR
means of obtaining early and prominent coverage
in the news media of the country involved. There
The design for the International Book Year S y m -
were more than 40 national adaptations of the
bol was the work of a Belgian graphic artist,
Book Year poster in addition to the international
Michel Olyff, chosen for the task on the advice of
poster (availablein four languages) produced by
the International Council of Graphic Design Asso-
Unesco. Slogans were added here and there:
ciations (ICOGRADA). Showing two figures link-
"Books Bring People Together", "A Good Book
ing arms over the pages of an open book.,it was is a Good Friend", "Read More - Guess Less".
intended to reflect international co-operation
(Other samples appear in a subsequent section of
through books, the r81e of books in development.
this report). In a few cases, press kits produced
The hope was that the symbol would be used on
by national bodies supplied local newspapers with
book covers, in periodicals, on posters, stamps,
ideas as well as texts by outstanding contempo-
calendars, and letters. What in fact happened was
rary authors. Of course there were thousands
that the symbol ran away with the campaign. It
of press stories, some of them in-depth surveys
appeared in more places and on more different
of reading, literacy, or the history of the area's
kinds of objects than its planners had conceived,
own book industry.
or even dreamed of. Accepted in all cultures (no
O n the national level, too, governments voted
small accomplishment for a symbol), it was oc-
special budgets for Book Year programmes, these
casionally adapted for local purposes (one of the
funds in many cases being supplemented by bene-
human figures was clothed in skirts in one country,
volent institutions, banks and foundations. One
although the fact that it represented Mankind, and
National Commission had plastic book bags manu-
not either m e n or women, was generally accepted).
factured which were placed on sale, with proceeds
While this cannot be proved without proper psycho-
going to purchase books for children of hill tribes-
logical testing, it was felt that the warm, almost
men. In several countries pins and badges bear-
familiar strokes of the symbol helped achieve ing the Campaign symbol were sold to finance
acceptance for the message which usually accom-
activities; in others Book Year literature was
panied it. There are probably few examples of a
published for sale. About fifty national postal
symbol which received so much exposure in so
administrations issued commemorative stamps,
wide a geographical area in so short a time span. including a few special surcharge issues; the
extra income was earmarked for financing the
programme for the year. One library system in
IN MEMBER S T A T E S Canada devised a "penny a book" campaign where-
by borrowers contributed funds for the purchase
More than half o€ Unescols Member States set up
o f Unesco book coupons.
special national committees for International A number of countries used Book Year as
Book Year. Often provided with a secretariat by
the occasion to adhere to international agree-
the National Commission for Unesco of the coun-
ments and conventions concerning books, or car-
try concerned, they were made up of officials of ried through new legislation on copyright or
-
the appropriate government offices ministries library development. Countries with national
of education, information, culture, but also m e m -
book industries pushed forward development
bers of the book community: publishers, book-
plans, increasing book production or the potential
sellers and librarians, authors. Leading civic
for same.
figures were included. O n occasion sub-
If the surveys and inventories of resources
committees were set up to treat specific aspects
were undramatic, barely tangible manifestations
of book development, such as promotion of the
of InternationalBook Year, they m a y have been
reading habit, or production and distribution, or
among its more significant (because lasting) pro-
they would be broke? down on linguistic lines in
ducts. Thanks to the impetus of the world c a m -
countries with more than one national language.
paign, public and private bodies now know more
Officials from widely varied disciplines - printing,
about their peoples' needs, and often have a
libraries, but also Customs offices - were mob-
clearer idea of how to meet them. Comparative
ilized. The Committees drafted national plans,
studies on kinds and availability of children's
prepared (and distributed) promotional material,

13
books, for example, were made in advanced and
developing countries alike. In another instance,
a joint effort was initiated under the auspices of
the Tokyo Book Development Centre to publish
attractively illustrated but low-cost children's
books simultaneously in 14 languages of the region.
(The first two volumes, sponsored by the Associa-
tion of Publishers and by the Unesco National
Commission of Japan were published during Book
Year itself).
ON THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
While it is obvious that most of the 400-odd inter-
national non-governmentalorganizations main-
taining relations with Unesco do not have book
promotion as their primary purpose, it is rare
that their activities are not in one way or another
related to books and reading. Whenever and
wherever it was possible, these organizations
supported Book Year within their own areas of
experience. For some, such as the International
Reading Association, or the International Board
on Books for Young People, the world campaign
provided an opportunity to intensify regular pro-
grammes. Others carried out campaigns tailored
to IBY: collection of books by the Boy Scouts for
orphanages, hospitals and retirement homes;
organization of study days, exhibitions, or round-
table debates by women's groups, religiousor trade
union associations; publications of anthologies,
pamphlets, information bulletins; reprinting and
-
distribution of the Charter of the Book the kinds
of activity were as varied as the interests of the
organizations which make up the international
community.
Many of the agencies in the United Nations
Systemarticipated in book promotion in appro-
priate ways. In M a y 1971, after having examined
a report by Unesco on "Book Development in the
Service of Education", the United Nations Econo-
mic and Social Council unanimously adopted a
resolution supporting Book Year and inviting the
organizations concerned to associate themselves
with the international effort. The United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),
for example, examined steps that might be taken
to help developing nations overcome difficulties
in importing educational, scientific, and technical
materials (but also equipment needed to create
national book industries), which difficulties were
often caused by shortages of foreign exchange.
The Food and Agriculture Organization'spro-
g r a m m e of research into paper problems affect-
ing the book industry was supplemented by an
initiative of the Econornic Commission for Africa,
which undertook a study on the possibilities for
14
a newsprint project in North Africa. The World
Health Organization devoted a special issue of its
magazine to Book Year, while the Universal Pos-
tal Union communicated to all its Member States
the suggestion that postal administrations might
issue commemorative stamps. During Book Year
too, some Specialized Agencies called attention
in their own publications to their rdles as book
publishers: the International Labour Organiza-
tion, with 270 volumes produced in five languages
in 1971 -1 972, in addition to works for the general
public or for specialists; the Food and Agricul-
ture Organization, with 130 publications translated
into 23 languages besides English, French, and
Spanish.
Among initiatives of other intergovernmental
organizations were a seminar on libraries held
by the Council of Europe, an All-African Trade
Fair sponsored by the Organization of African
Unity, a library conference by the Organization
of American States. The first dictionary of a
series on local languages was issued by the Ibero-
American Bureau of Education.
THE COSTS
Unesco's own expenditures for Book Year, dis-
cussed in another section, amounted to less than
$100,000 over a 24-month period. But they were
largely overshadowed by the budgets of a number
of Member States - $400,000 in one case,
$100,000 in several others. And to these budgets
should be added the sums disbursed in M e m b e r
States for programmes inaugurated during Book
Year (e.g., in Thailand, launching of a scheme
for free distribution of textbooks for pupils in
remote areas of the country of an annual cost of
$3, 000,000). Countries large and small taxed
the facilities of their school and library systems,
the ingenuity of their cultural workers. What is
more, the press and other media provided abun-
dant publicity to Book Year programmes, which
for a private campaign of similar dimensions
would have cost incalculable sums of money.
It was generally agreed that librarians in all
parts of the world were among the most effective
agents for Book Year campaigns. Nor has any-
one attempted to calculate the cash value of the
gifts of books and whole libraries effected
from governments, private institutions,
voluntary organizations, to schools and
libraries, charitable institutions, book-
deprived regions.
Often the important thing was not the size
of a national budget for Book Year, but the con-
tribution of time and effort by individuals and
groups, public and private.
 D.Carrying out the programmes
In fact two kinds of activity were to take place
during International Book Year(and here, as else-
where, the programme encompassed the busy
preparatory months preceding 1 January 1972 as
well as the carry-over into 1973). The first acti-
vity was the intangible if essential one of further-
ing the idea of reading and book-making, to
heighten the motivations of users, to pave the way
for more and better production and distribution.
The other kind of activity was a very palpable one,
involving as it did the actual handling of books:
shipping libraries to deprived areas, putting ap-
propriate-level books into the hands of children,
or on to exhibition racks where people could
pick them up. The actual movement of books
trom point A to point B was the sort of achieve-
ment which distinguishes Book Year 1972 from
most preceding international campaigns, public
or private. Book-deprived peoples were being
helped to awareness of their needs, but they were
also being shown how to transform their desires
into reality. Real books smelling of printers ink
and binding glue moved to desks, shelves, and
into peoples' homes during International Book
Year, in incalculable quantities, though the
figures provided by those Member States which
compiled statistics suggest that global totals were
unprecedented.
Activity in most countries included both an
outgoing and an in-turning aspect. Looking at
themselves, nations encouraged their own litera-
ture, celebrated national authors and their works,
examined the possibilities of expanding their book
potential. Looking outward, they engaged in inter-
national exchanges, donated know-how, materials
for book-making,or the printed books themselves.
What follows should be the most significant
part of this report, for it is an attempt to des-
cribe day-to-day implementation of the national
programmes. Without the down-to-earth contact,
when the end-user finds himself in direct touch
with a product being offered, no campaign ever
leaves the abstract plane, which is a way of say-
ing that it cannot be seen to have borne fruit. It
was also the most difficult part of a campaign to
carry out for it required the conviction and ener-
gies of m e n and women in touch with the book-
makers and book-users, far from the centres of
power and decision. W e shall see how they went
about putting InternationalBook Year plans into
practical effect.
The examples which follow are only examples.
They are cited as models of action, but activities
identical or similar to those described here were
often carried out in a number of different coun-
tries simultaneously, repeatedly, in the course
of Book Year. If only a fraction of the total
achievement is set forth here, it is in the interest
of clarity as well as of space limitations;a simple
listing of events and those responsible for them
would have been less readable and less likely to
be studied by planners of future programmes.
1. DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLISHING AND
PRINTING FACILITIES
T o determine what percentage of new titles pub-
lished in 1972, or increases in national produc-
tion when they took place, should be attributed to
Book Year m a y never be possible. However, it
is certain that publishing capacity expanded in
many areas (e.g., a new publishing house was
opened in one West African country; another
state planned to establish a national publishing
company). Large numbers of books were pro-
duced for programmes specifically inspired by
Book Year, for sale or free distribution or ex-
hibition. In a number of Socialist countries
Book Year was the occasion for a significant
augmentation of book production within the frame-
work of their national planning.
Pakistan established a National Book Foun-
dation as a statutory body with an ambitious
15
programme of its own. During Book Year it
published some 20 children's books, both fiction
and non-fiction, in an attractive format. They
would help fill the 50,000 "peo,ple-oriented"lib-
raries being provided by the national education
plan, and this was also coupled with a crash pro-
g r a m m e for adult literacy.
There was wide and generous exchange of
publishing knowledge and assistance during Book
Year. A small state with a highly developed pub-
lishing industry opened a training course in prin-
ting for personnel from developing states. Train-
ing courses for editors and booksellers were held
in New Delhi, in English and in the principal lan-
guage of that country, contemplated as only the
first in a series of courses (in subsequent years
they were to be given in other national languages
and in other areas of the country). Nearly every
state with an overseas assistance programme
emphasized book developmental activities, or in-
creased book gifts. Thus a governmental founda-
tion in one European state announced it would
provide financial and technical assistance for the
establishment of printing facilities in developing
countries lacking them, as well as for provision
of technical literature and fellowships for book
industry personnel, who were to be brought to the
sponsoring country for that purpose.
It had become important to know what the
national possibilities were, so during Book Year
there were countless studies of the publishing
potential of individual nations. In Asia, for exam-
ple, Indonesia held a national book census, to-
gether with a survey of reading habits and require-
ments, a furthersurvey ofraw materials problelns
(paper, board, binding cloth), in addition to
seminars dealing with the problems of authors,
publishers, booksellers, librarians, illustrators,
and research projects on standardizationof scripts,
new type faces, printing and illustratingtechniques.
The next step, wnich some countries were
prepared to take during Book Year, was the draw-
ing up of national goals, with targets set for the
number of books that should be available to each
family per year, the number of books to go into
libraries or to be distributed directly to citizens,
the cost of this investment estimated as a percen-
tage of the countryls gross national product.
It was a time, too, when urgent public m e s -
sages were sent to the advanced publishing nations
by the developing nations indicating their require-
-
ments for their publishing industries paper for
the printing of books or development of paper-
making plants, for shortages of printing paper
were noted as soon as the deprived areas began
to take stock of their potential. The Book Year
message of one African chief of state s u m m e d up
these problems succinctly; he noted that despite
the wealth of the national literature and constant
progress being made in publishing, his nation's
16
production of books relevant to changing needs
and to contemporary society was still in its
infancy. Owing to shortages of qualified person-
nel, lack of finance, and the absence of sophisti-
cated book industries, it had been necessary to
resort - although temporarily and decreasingly -
to importing books from abroad, a costly proce-
dure. Priority must therefore be assigned to
books for general reading and textbooks rooted
in the nation's own setting, responding to the
needs of its public, designed not only for the
highly educated but for the newly literate.
2. DEVELOPMENT OF DISTRIBUTION
The problem of distribution was recognized as
having an importance equal to that of getting books
published in the first place. Book reading, and
the health of the book trade itself, was hindered
in some developing areas because of inadequate
facilities for shipping books from one nation to
another on the same continent. During Inter-
national Book Year, meetings were held to dis-
cuss import and export of books, postal and cus-
toms regulations, air, sea and land shipments,
and the allocation of foreign currencies. O n the
practical level, training courses covered a wide
range of book trade occupations. In West Africa,
for example, Nigeria held several such courses
for booksellers guided by experts from a leading
European publishing country.
There was also the promise of an increase,
on the part of nations with well endowed publish-
ing industries, of the production of low-cost
editions for.readers in developing nations. This
might be done through subsidizing textbooks, or
an exchange voucher scheme enabling countries
lacking foreign currency to import essential
technical and academic literature.
A number of M e m b e r States explored new
methods of book distribution including the use of
book boxes, sales by mail and through book clubs,
and market surveys were conducted in an attempt
to match distribution possibilities to local
requirements.
In one European nation with a state publishing
industry, efforts were concentrated on extending
the distribution of reading materials on a volun-
tary basis. "Contracts of Friendship" were con-
cluded between the national book trade and
various institutions, managers of enterprises,
libraries, educational institutes. Thus 50 new
bookshops run on a voluntary basis were opened
in industrial enterprises and in villages (for a
country-widetotal of 110). The number of volun-
tary literary "publicists" working as sales per-
sonnel increased to 12,700, while the book trade
arranged more than 12,000 sales exhibitions and
2500 other book-related events, especially in
 industrial enterprises and in rural areas. Schools
organized parallel festivals of national literature,
which included readings by authors, discussions
between writers and students.
" W e know and everybody knows", said the head
of the Unesco National Commission in one African
state (but he could have been speaking for many
others), "that millions of people in the country are
waiting for us to provide them with the books for
-
which they have been pleading for so long people
in the towns and in the villages as well. Let us
see to it that in the coming years every town,
every village, every hamlet has its own book cen-
tre: a place where books will be accessible, not
only as a means of information and education, but
also and indeed principally as a living experience
through which every citizen m a y increasingly dis-
cover his real identity and his potentialities".
Book Fairs and Exhibitions
The most important of all book fairs in represen-
tation is the yearly autumn international Book
Fair at Frankfurt-am-Main,where over 60 nations
regularly exhibit 200,000 to 250, 000 volumes.
During International Book Year the Fair was the
occasion for inauguration of a major exhibit of
"Books about Books", which would also be taken
to Unesco headquarters in Paris, and then around
the world (at the close of 1973, Book Year Plus
One, it was still travelling).
"Books about Books" contained 1395 book
titles from 403 publishing houses or organizations;
38 different countries responded to the invitation
to participate. The books shown at the Frankfurt
Book Fair and later during the exhibit's tour cov-
ered such areas as: authors and publishers and
their problems - copyright, book production and
distribution, paper, promotion, statistics, the
principles of bibliography and documentation. The
volumes exhibited were not rareitems;many were
procurable at the present time, and prices (to-
gether with the addresses of publishers) were in-
cluded in the catalogue. A s a consequence, the
illustrated catalogue-bibliography, printed in an
edition of 10,000 copies, would in itself become a
useful tool for those needing to learn the elements
of the book trade. It is not difficult to visualize the
excitement of a neophyte book professional in a
far corner of our globe who finds himself in a
position to examine books with titles like "An Atlas
of Typeforms", "What Happens in Book Publishing",
or "A Manual of Classification for Librarians".
There were also exchanges of book exhibi-
tions, sometimes between developed and developing
, nations, allowing each side a view of the other's
cultural products. Some countries held inter-
national or national book fairs for the first time
during Book Year, fairs which would become re-
gular periodic events. Celebrating Book Year
and its 25th anniversary, as an independent state,
India held its first InternationalBook Fair, show-
ing 10,000 works published since 1947 in the sev-
eral national languages of the country, as well as
examples of significant books from other nations.
At the same time, it sent a travelling book fair
around the country by railway car, expenses to
be met by sales of books at each stopping place.
In Latin America, Brazil held a University Book
Fair in which other countries of the region were
invited to participate.
The events in a country were often grouped
in a national book week. S o m e of the 1972
national book weeks were the first of their kind
held in their countries. During a typical book
week publishers and booksellers might sell books
to the public at reduced prices.
A book fortnight for children held in a large
Asian state was launched with 100,000 posters
bearing the Book Year symbol, for distribution
to schools and community centres, cultural or-
ganizations and bookshops throughout the country.
A catalogue of recommended children'sbooks was
produced in 90,000 copies, with "consultative
corners''containing the recommended books being
set up in 350 bookshops. Children's book exhibits
displaying 3,000 different titles were organized,
together with exhibitions of illustrated books,
meetings on children's reading, mother-child
reading. A n adult book fortnight was prepared
for by 250,000 posters.
In one state, a major exhibition on how a
book is made was held in the capital city during
the early weeks of Book Year. There were actual
d emonstrations of printing and binding, but there
-
was also in this country rich in traditional manu-
-
scripts demonstrationof the age-old ways of pre-
paring a parchment for use, lettering and binding
the document. Those attending the exhibition were
in a sense being asked to look forward and back-
ward, cultural heritage astutely linked to future
needs.
Rare biblical documents from many periods
and the earliest printed editions of the Bible were
shown at a year-long exhibition at the Apostolic
Vatican Library.
At times book exhibitions made use of other
media: a film festival linked to a book fair, or a
play ("Ivre de livres") evoking the rale of the
book in society.
All Book Year long, nations large and small
held exhibitions of books. More often than not,
these events were inspired by the World Campaign
and would not otherwise have taken place. Large
countries were hosts to exhibits of the works of
authors from smaller countries in the same lan-
guage community but whose books were not always
widely known and distributed. Travelling book
exhibitions went to schools, but also to cultural
centres. T o factories, but also to prisons. In
17
one country a collection of 130 children's books
from 38 countries was put on display during Book
Year, while another exhibit called "The Gutenberg
Legacy" showed the scope and diversity of inter-
national publishing, as well as the high standards
of printing obtainable in many areas of the world.
Distribution of Books to Children
"What I would like most to do during International
Book Year", the principal education officer of a
sub-Sahara African country wrote to the Book
Year planners. "would be to donate to each
child , .. one book based on his background". For
this was the crux of it: to get books to those who
needed them.
One attempt to cope with these needs has al-
ready been mentioned: the scheme joined in by
several Asian states to rationalize production
processes by printing attractive low-cost chil-
dren's books in a number of language versions
with c o m m o n illustrations. Prepared by Asian
authors, the first books were designed for chil-
dren 9 to 12 years of age, with priority in subject
matter going to folktales, geography and travel,
and popularization of science. During Book Year
itself, Japan produced well-illustrated experi-
mental editions of two books in 15 Asian languages,
the first a morality tale entitled "Taro and his
Friends", the second on the functioning of the
blood stream. Printing and binding of the books,
published in national languages, were to be car-
ried out in the various countries of the region
participating in the project.
A novel initiative was the series of books
written and designed by schoolchildren (from
elementary to secondary school level) in a reli-
gious school system in one North American town.
The programme was operated as part of the
school board's commemoration of International
Book Year; copies of the books (bearing the Year
symbol) were then sent as gifts to teachers in
other areas. The use of colour and a profession-
al printing job was made possible by a special
grant from the national government of that coun-
try. One certain result was the inspiration such
a gift would represent to teachers and their stu-
dents in other areas.
At the same time, other countries decided
that children's books should be designed to teach
children about their own regions, and so a devel-
oping country with slender book resources gave
priority to the production of children's books
with a regional orientation.
A South Pacific country initiated a campaign
for book gifts to be sent to youth centres in a
neighbouring land. The campaign was carried out
by women's groups, with the help of public and
private schools. Children were invited to collect
the books, especially on wild life, flowers, and
18
the nation's cities, or to raise funds for their
purchase.
Distribution of Books to Adults and Institutions
Jt was a year for generosity, and of a special
kind. The arrival of a book in a school or a lib-
rary which needed it was a fraternal action which
implied no humiliation to the recipient, no special
pride on the giver's side. The gift of a book is a
rational act, involved as it is with national devel-
opment, and thus with international well-being
and peace.
A s another indication of Book Year solidarity:
A Canadian university collected books from its
students, from faculty members and university
librarians, displayed them to the 2500 overseas
students on its campus, who could then select
and ship those which they felt might be of use to
schools or other institutions in their home coun-
tries. A n ambitious campaign of the Asian Foun-
dation (United States of America) provided one
million books and professional journals through
its Books for Asian Students Programme, repre-
senting a 25 per cent increase over its regular
annual quota.
Books for the blind were stressed, in many
areas. One country set up a "Talking Book for
the Blind" library during Book Year. " W e are
convinced,'I wrote the President of the World
Council for the Welfare of the Blind to the
Director-Generalof Unesco, "that there must be
broad recognition within your Organization and
among governments and peoples of m e m b e r coun-
tries that the provision of adequate opportunity
for the education, training, employment, cultu-
ral advancement and recreation of blind persons
Lnow numbering over 15 million throughout the
worlfi7 is entirely dependent on their access to
literature of all types in a form which they can
absorb". The Council offered co-operationto
Unesco and its m e m b e r countries during Book
Year, and indicated some of the problems con-
nected with providing books for the blind, among
them the frequent incompatibility of copyright
laws concerning books for the blind; the high
unit cost of such books, making it necessary that
they be subsidized. Obviously Unesco added
these considerations to the plans already drawn
up for the benefit of the blind during International
Book Year (such as the setting up of reading
rooms for the blind, and production centres for
Braille publications).
A group of handicapped intellectuals in one
country began the publication of a Braille periodi-
cal for children from five to nine years of age,
collected liew Braille libraries for children
from nine tc fourteen, and expanded its library
for adults by acquiring 1000 recorded books. It
also organized an imernational seminar on
Braille for all countries within its language
community.
One of the most widely publicized activities
during Book Year was France's distribution of a
set of six bound pocket-format books to all newly
married couples in the country between 1 April
and 31 December of 1972. The newly-weds could
choose between two collections. In the same
M e m b e r State, two large commercial distributors
of gasoline for motorists offered paperback books
to their customers, distributing 25 million books
in three months (and incidentally noting an in-
crease in their gasoline sales). The books con-
tained reminders of other books in the same
series, with an invitation to buy them through
bookshops.
The giving of books to institutions was facili-
tated by use of Unesco gift coupons, available for
use by communities, groups, schools or indivi-
duals anywhere in the world. The donor could
obtain the coupons at $ 5 each from Unesco, and
then send them to a specific library, school,
educational programme for adults or for literacy,
or he could select a beneficiary from a list of 35
projects approved by Unesco. T w o of these pro-
jects were particularly linked to Book Year, one
for a library to be chosen by the donor, the other
for education for the blind. In one country those
who bought books or borrowed them from libra-
ries were asked to contribute one penny per title,
to be used for sending volumes to developing
nations under the Unesco Gift Coupon Programme.
It will help the contributors, the programme
director explained, "to appreciate their own good
fortune in having access to books".
All such bilateral aid, it was clear, would
have an effect on the importance attached to books
both in donor and recipient countries.
3. DEVELOPMENT OF LITERATURE AND
BOOK-AWARENESS
Encouragement of translations
This became a logical by-product of International
Book Year, for translation is a means of making
both a neighbouring people and its accumulated
knowledge available to readers. It is also a
means of communication between the traditional
publishing nations: During B Y 1972, one of them
established prizes for the translation of a nation-
al work into other major languages. It can also
mean that the works of a writer from a developing
nation but whose books had been published only in
a major world language will be translated into the
national language, or a local language of his own
country, and thus become accessible to ordinary
readers.
While nurturing the growth of a domestic
printed literature, and of technical and scientific
works in the national language, development
might be assisted in the short run by borrowings
from the established publishing nations. In con-
sequence, much effort during 1972 went into the
promotion of translations, especially into the
languages used by comparatively small groups.
Thus a Southeast Asian state made translations
of world classics into the national language one
of its Book Year goals. In Europe, Bulgaria was
engaged in a similar activity; M a y 1972 was its
Book Month, during which classics of world lit-
erature were sold (under the label "1972 Inter-
national Book Year") at reduced prices, and pub-
lishers issued special collections under the series
headings "World Classics", "Poets of the World",
"Selected Works", and "Books for All".
Many countries instituted or augmented transla-
tion programmes, or offered prizes to encourage
expert translations.
Preservation of Oral Literature
There is an African saying: "When a sage dies,
a library burns". Indeed, the oral literary he-
ritage is of particular importance to countries of
this region. Books, then, must have their de-
finition extended to encompass oral literature.
But preservation is another story. It requires
tape recording and written transcription, and
publications (books and magazines) containing
what can be recorded. Several countries in
Africa initiated programmes along these lines
during Book Year. In Chad, for example, a con-
test was organized to collect oral tales for publi-
cation, whose readers were then urged to ''go
beyond the act of reading, and write down them-
selves the legends, tales and fables of their
villages ...'I.
Venezuela prepared an anthology of stories
and legends from Hispanic-Americanoral litera-
ture, based on a contest among 300 authors.
Here and there across the globe, other plans
were examined for collecting local folklore, or
reviving interest in previously published mater-
ials on popular culture. A typical example:
Members of women's clubs in a group of Pacific
islands wrote down local legends in the languages
of the island group, then turned them over to a
teachers' college for a programme of reading
and writing instruction in these languages.
Literary Prizes
Many clever uses were made of the literary prize
during International Book Year. It became a
stimulant not only for better and more carefully
made books, but for international exchanges as
well. For example,a European nation through its
committee for InternationalBook Year endowed
19
literary prizes not only for its own book profes-
sions but for the publication of a book within that
country by an African author.
A Southeast Asian state concentrated all Book
Year activities into a single Literature Week, the
climax of which was International Book Year Day,
during which national literary prizes were award-
ed. A n African country announced a prize for the
best national writer, and other prizes were given
in developing nations to encourage the publishing
of books in national languages, or on the subject
of the author's own homeland.
Over 20 M e m b e r States of Unesco established
new national literary prizes for Book Year 1972,
s o m e of which will continueto serve as encourage-
ment to creative writers in future years.
Libraries
It was widely recognized that libraries are the
most reliable medium for making books available
to large numbers of people no matter how far they
might be from the cultural and economic centres
of their country, and irrespective of the purchas-
ing power of the individual book reader. And so
library development: expansion of existing instal-
lations, founding of new libraries and of library
-
systems where none existed before were obvious
priorities for Book Year. The international c a m -
paign provided the stimulus for new allocations of
funds as gifts from privileged countries, publish-
ers, national and private bodies. Library service
training was expanded, and countries possessing
proved systems and veteran librarians held semi-
nars for colleagues from less well endowedareas.
A European state brought fellows from developing
countries to its Tropical Institute for an eight-
months course in staffing university libraries,
scientific documentation centres and other
institutes.
Model libraries were planned. A large W e s -
tern state initiated a "sister library" scheme for
the exchange of material and personnel. Know-
how was freely exported (e.g., standard book
numbering, standard serial numbers for libra-
rians, or the cataloguing-in-publication now
utilized in certain states). As mentioned earlier
in the report, a South Asian country announced
-
for Book Year a new education policy calling
for 45,000 public libraries to be established in
rural areas, and another 5,000 in urban locali-
ties. And there was considerable interest both
in advanced and developing nations in mobile lib-
raries,bibliobuses,and in any and every means to
bring books to areas with insufficient local lib-
rary resources.
In Afghanistan, for example, activities lead-
ing up to Book Year included the formation of a
library association which was said to be the first
association in that country, and soon the new
20
group was involved in Book Year planning. A n -
other small nation decided to build a national
library during Book Year; in Latin America a
major publishing nation planned to open a library
school.
One European state sponsored an internation-
al meeting of experts on school libraries. Its
book trade association launched a campaign to
establish new school libraries through individual
gifts, while the government donated a mobile lib-
rary for rural areas. Another state took the op-
portunity of Book Year to conduct its first nation-
wide survey of library facilities, and planned a
public libraries law to make local authorities
responsible for the establishment and main-
tenance of public libraries under the supervision
and with the assistance of the national govern-
ment. O n the junior level, the inventory of book
resources was extended to public school pupils,
invited to take stock of the books they possessed.
Catholic institutes of education engaged in a
certain number of activities on behalf of reading,
including the development of libraries, and their
use for out-of-schooland life-long education.
There were open-door operations to familiarize
young persons with the cultural atmosphere of
these institutions.
It was the year when nations with the re-
sources to do so came to the assistance of other
nations requiring help. There were gifts of paper
and supplies by a number of countries, but more
particularly aid in the building of libraries in
book-deprived areas.
Libraries were not only sent by book-rich
countries as gifts to their neighbours, but some
advanced countries which decided that their own
facilities were inadequate took the opportunity to
remedy the situation during Book Year. In one
case there were plans to provide each province
with a basic library of 300 books to be used in
organizing ten travelling exhibits in its territory.
Another state set up a model library in a sec-
ondary school during Book Year, to serve as a
guide for a school library system for the future.
And in still another country, a university pre-
pared a model for a modest library which could
serve both schools and families in their homes.
A s an example of private initiative, a Euro-
pean book club donated 5,000 volumes to libra-
ries in the Third World, while another publisher
in the same apparently well-endowednation, feel-
ing that charity begins at home, offered 2,500
books to schools in isolated areas of his own
country.
Reinforcing Literacy; Adult Education
What good does it do to teach people to read and
to write, if they do not have access to a continu-
ing supply of reading matter to maintain, even
 to strengthen, the skills they have acquired? The
question was raised in the report on Book Devel-
opment in the service of Education submitted by
Unesco to the United Nations Economic and Social
Council prior to Book Year. Failure to meet the
needs of new literates, the report warned, can
result in tragic relapses into illiteracy, wiping
out in a few years the results achieved by devel-
oping countries through what are ofter heroic
efforts. A unique activity undertaken in one book-
deprived African country, Rwanda, during Inter-
national Book Year resulted in the production of
142 manuscripts of which some 20 were selected
for publication. B y offering reading matter to
the hundreds of thousands of students of that coun-
try who had finished their primary education but
had no books at their disposal, it was hoped to
prolong the benefits of literacy training and to
promote mass culture.
International Book Year, then, took place at
a time when the problem of reinforcing literacy
was on everyone's agenda. And this was only
part of the story. In September 1971, on World
Literacy Day, the United Nations Secretary-
General sent a message to Unesco's Director-
General recalling "those millions throughout the
world - more than one-third of our planet's adult
-
population for w h o m the written word remains
a mystery".
The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees sent its branch offices in Africa and
Asia a memorandum calling attention to Book
Year and the r61e books can play in promoting
integration of refugees into new communities.
A m o n g initiatives suggested was training of per-
sonnel in the book field, development of basic
libraries (fixed or travelling, general or special-
ized) in refugee camps. It also considered the
production of reading material for new literates,
the transcription or recording of oral literature
and book exhibitions.
Indeed, Book Year 1972 saw many such pro-
grammes take form in developing nations: works
designed to keep new literates reading, even a
magazine for illiterates published in an indigenous
language in one African nation.
Lectures and Readings
The holding of lectures or round-tabletalks fea-
turing prominent authors was a frequent con-
comitant to Book Year programmes. There were
poetry readings, and special events organized
around the life and work of national literary fig-
ures, e.g., for the 175th anniversary of the poet
Heinrich Heine. The USSR included, as a feature
of its Book Year programme, a tribute to the
world-famousnovelist Leo Tolstoy. A n exhibition
of his works in translations into the various lan-
guages of the country was held in the museum
dedicated to his life, with lectures on his in-
fluence on the character and development of
national literatures within the nation. A travelling
exhibit was sent to distant parts of the country
and visits were arranged to places where the
author had lived.
One of the unique efforts made by a M e m b e r
State was the distribution to the press and other
media of a group of papers on writing and publish-
ing (under the general title "Observation"). Each
paper was written by a well-known national writer,
occasionally in anecdotal or even dramatic lan-
guage, to emphasize the importance of reading,
and the precious heritage to be found in books.
(A famous science-fiction writer speculated, for
example, on the loss to civilization if all its
books were burned).
In Mexico, a government-supported publish-
ing house sponsored a series of ten lectures to be
delivered by leading intellectuals on the theme
"The Book, Myth and Reality". In most regions
of the world there were programmes of readings
and lectures, often starting out with an author's
reading of his work and ending with a public
debate on the work.
The Unesco National Commission in one
Asian state held a lecture meeting for an audience
of 1200 under the slogan "Let's Spend More T i m e
in Reading Books", at which occasion the results
of book reading experiences were described by
leaders of reading circles, and a popular critic
gave a talk on "Books and m y Life". At another
meeting (with an audience of 600) a prominent
national writer gave a talk on the same theme,
while representatives of local reading groups
spoke on the "Present Status and Problems in the
Reading Environment of the Community".
Conferences
All during Book Year internationalgroups con-
cerned with books were holding meetings. And
if the organization concerned would have had a
congress in any case in 1972, the event often took
on heightened importance or interest because of
Book Year, e.g., the 19th Congress of the Inter-
national Publishers Association, held in M a y at
Unesco headquarters in Paris. The International
Community of Booksellers Associations, the
International Federation for Documentation held
meetings during the year, and a particular effort
was made by the InternationalFederation of Lib-
rary Associations, with four meetings: on inter-
national exchanges of publications; a council
meeting whose theme was "Reading in a Chang-
ing World"; an experts meeting on the reprint
problem; a symposium on library researchers.
O n the practical plane a number of the larger
countries organized conferences on book develop-
ment, with invitations going out across the world.
21
One such meeting was a seminar on books in edu-
cation and economic development, attended by
publishers, librarians, educators , and economic
and social planners.
Early in 1972, South Asian National Commis-
sions m e t in Bangkok to recommend that the oppor-
tunity of Book Year be used "to generate medium
and long-term plans for book design, production
and promotion of the reading ha_bit ... both short-
terg and long-term solutions Lto the paper short-
age_/,including surveys of paper resources; poten-
tial demands for paper; production potentials;
donation potentials, as well as the feasibility of
establishing a central Asian paper pool to meet
urgent needs". Later in the year an Association
of South East Asian Publishers was formed, with
headquarters in Singapore, to seek joint solutions
to c o m m o n problems such as training courses to
meet the shortage of qualified personnel in the
region, as well as joint promotion of books, and
combined bibliographies.
At the same time, a symposium on the situa-
tion of books and reading in the Mahgreb was held
in November, whose 60 participants included pro-
fessors of education, teachers, sociologists,
writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and
other book-involved professionals. It drew up a
balance sheet of activities undertaken during Inter-
national Book Year in the countries of the region,
drafted a programme of activity for the future.
The Regional Conference for English-Speaking
West Africa, held in Monrovia from 16 to 20 Octo-
ber of Book Year 1972, took place under the theme
"Book Development in Africa". The conference
chairman was president of the host country's
Society of Authors, a noted dramatist was chair-
m a n of the Poetry and D r a m a Committee. (There
were also committees on textbooks and on general
literature and adult literacy). The conference
manifested a dedication to literary concerns,
stressing the basic needs of developing nations,
recommending regional co-operation. One by one
the delegates of participating countries spelled
out the status of their publishing programmes,
the needs of their schools and of the public at
large, now and for the future. The conference
report, 123 pages in length, is a unique distilla-
tion of the quotidian problems of book hunger,
compiled by those who are seeking ways to over-
come it.
And on a strictly national level, International
-
Book Year provided impetus for gatherings often
in workshop format - of authors, publishers,
typographers and designers, educators, librarians,
and others concerned with books; they were to
examine the totality of problems of their c o m m o n
profession and universe. It probably meant that
many or most of them would come out of these
workshops with a better understanding of their
own as well as their neighbours' r61e. Certainly
22
it meant that future relations between these logical-
ly related groups would be facilitated. The book
requirements of a nation were drawn up, the
capacities of national publishing and distribution
-
were surveyed often for the first time.
Countries also used Book Year as an occa-
sion to enter the international copyright c o m m u -
nity, or to adhere to conventions and accords
intended to promote the free flow of textbooks and
reference works, sometimes to codify or revise
their own copyright laws.
Organizations and Clubs
If reading is a very individual act, part of the
pleasure of a book is its sharing. Access to books
often requires a joint effort, such as a library.
Books and their authors are subjects of continued
interest to discussion groups. For all these rea-
sons, the international book promotion carried
out during 1972 saw the birth of a large number
of organizations large and small, often on the
village and neighbourhood level. Thus in one
East European nation "Friends of the Book" clubs
were set up in the principal libraries and book-
shops. The Book Year Committees established
in many countries had immediate value as co-
ordinators of book activities but many of them
also provided the inspiration, if not the infra-
structure, for permanent book promotion councils.
Unesco Clubs throughout the world contri-
buted effectively to Book Year programmes by
means of informational campaigns and a variety
of ground-level activities. Clubs in a number of
regions held seminars with national writers,
promoted the Unesco Gift Coupon Scheme, under-
took surveys on reading and publishing problems,
collected books for donation to institutions. In
one large Asian city, 52 separate Unesco clubs
developed individual programmes for publicizing
bookshops, organizing book exhibits, improving
and promoting public libraries in villages and
towns, producing literary manuals and basic
word lists, holding competitions for children's
book manuscripts.
A n International Association of Scholarly
Publishers was established at a conference in
Toronto held within the framework of Book Year.
Its principal objectives: to encourage the dis-
semination of research and scholarship; to pro-
mote the exchange of ideas; to make available
mutual advice and assistance; and to help in the
establishment of new scholarly publishing activi-
ties. The new association planned to publish an
international directory of university presses and
a newsletter, would promote training and en-
courage translations. (Mr. Shigeo Minowa,
director of the Tokyo University Press, was
chosen as the first president of the Association,
with Mr. Nat Adzakey (Ghana) as vice-president;
headquarters are at Toronto University Press).
4. PROMOTIONAL C A M P A I G N S
Press and other media
Many countries set up special units as part of
their Book Year committees, to stimulate book
reviewing, interviews with authors, essay con-
tests, readings. The production of local booklets
and tracts on book-related subjects was an effec-
tive echo of the international effort; it brought
international concern for books down to the neigh-
bourhood and the village level. Often the entire
year's campaign in a nation centered on one theme,
crystallized in a slogan used on posters, in school
and college programmes.
In addition to the international slogan "Books
for All", individual countries, local groupings
public and private promoted the book programme
under slogans of their own. "The Book, an an-
swer''was one. "The book for everyman" another.
Themes of conferences and other meetings ranged
from "Reading for All" to "Books in the Service
of Education, International Understanding and
Peaceful Co-operation". Posters read "Books
Bring People Together", "Widen your World with
Books", "A Good Book is a Good Friend", even
-
"Read More Guess Less".
In the Caribbean, for example, Trinidad and
Tobago kept the Book Year camapign lively by
producing a variety of slogans, both serious and
humorous, which were broadcast several times
each day on radio and television, printed (together
with the Year symbol) on inexpensive T-shirts
for men, women, and children. Commercial
companies contributed advertising space to run
Book Year competition news, and there was a ten-
day book festival well covered in the local press.
A number of organizations, ranging from labour
unions to businessmen's groups, participated in
a gifts-to-school movement to endow schools
lacking libraries with a nucleus of books produced
locally, while schoolchildren were encouraged to
produce books of their own. The two Saturdays
of the Festival were devoted to "Children's
World", where young readers met authors, took
part in contests, listened to a continuous per-
formance by a team of storytelling readers. The
author of a book on local games and songs was on
hand to play and sing with the children. A "hob-
bies corner''dealt with shells, stamps, and fish,
and the books that go with them; a talk on puppet-
making was followed by a puppet show given by
children. Yet when all the merry-making was
over, the national IBY programme committee was
able to point to a still more lasting achievement:
the emphasis placed on stimulating local book pro-
duction. High literacy in the region was accom-
panied by low readership: the reason was felt to
be the irrelevance of much of the literature pro-
duced outside the region. A seminar on regional
problems in book production and distribution
found that all the ingredients for a successful
local publishing and printing industry exist.
Elsewhere in the Caribbean, a leading
Calypso singer composed a special song for Book
Year, another instance of the relaxed ambiance
which some sponsoring committees were able to
create for tineir Book Year programmes.
The Book Year symbol was used extensively
on the grass-roots level. A Central American
country placed it on all books published by the
government during the year, and arranged with
private publishers for the symbol to be placed on
all books published in the commercial sector as
well. Booksellers associations prepared Book
Year stickers to be used in bookshops. The s y m -
bol appeared on posters in nearly 70 countries,
on letterheads, lapel pins, pillboxes, ashtrays,
cigarette wrappers, and shopping bags, in addi-
tion to the other examples described elsewhere
in this study. Some of these objects were put on
sale, the proceeds going to buy books for children
in deprived areas, for example.
Contests
Organizers in all disciplines know that an infalli-
ble means to focus attention on a programme, be
it humanitarian or commercial, is a contest, in
which the normal sporting instinct is marshalled
for a particular cause. Not surprisingly, contests
had their r61e to play during International Book
Year. They were programmed nationally, by
province, locally, by public and private bodies.
In their simplest form, they were an effort to
increase reading in the school system. Thus in
a small African state, a competition called "One
Child, One Book" endeavoured to encourage each
schoolchild to read at least one book in addition
to his textbooks. Prizes were awarded to clas-
ses and pupils who had been particularly active
readers.
One major nation which regularly gave annual
prizes for meritorious literacy activities awarded
its 1972 prizes for accomplishments in book devel-
opment for the post-literacy period. In another
European country, a children's book club distri-
buted "reader passports" to children, in which
young readers were to list (and evaluate) the
books they were reading: holders of the fullest
passports were to be given prizes (of books)
during Book Year. A large East Asian nation
held a country-wide essay competition, sponsored
by a library association in collaboration with a
bookstore and a daily newspaper, in which senior
high school students would write on "The Book as
a source of knowledge; m y personal experience"
and "The effective use of library membership".
Students in educational institutions in another
large Asian nation won prizes in a speech contest
23
whose subject was "The R61e of Books in Society".
Indeed, speech and essay contests were features
of national programmes in a large number of coun-
tries. They provided an appealing and proved way
to mobilize broad interest.
O n at least one occasion, essay subjects
were designed to produce solutions to practical,
day to day.problems: book distribution, and the
teaching of reading. Or there might be a poster
competition, for a graphic representation of a
theme or activity related to Book Year, and in-
corporating the Campaign symbol. (In one Euro-
pean country there were 850 poster entries, 480
of them designed by children from the ages of 10
to 15). Contests during Book Year ran the gamut
of possibilities for the best book displays in book-
-
store windows to cite an obviously useful exam-
ple. In an African state the national authors
society organized a Children's Poetry Contest
open to children up to 15 years of age, and it was
also hoped that an anthology of children's poetry
would be produced. In a European state, primary
and secondary school pupils were invited to parti-
cipate in a contest entitled "Make a Book About a
Book". The same country held a contest in a
graphics art school u n d w the auspices of the
national Unesco centre to design a bookmark on
"Unesco and the Book".
Combining the prize concept with book pro-
motion, supporters of Book Year in a Latin
American state offered cash prizes for the best
newspaper articles on books to appear in 1972.
But in its simplest expression, the Book Year
contest could be symbolized in the "Open Book"
campaign of a small African state which, with the
aid of local radio and television, invited partici-
pants to read three books and to fill out a ques-
tionnaire on the subjects contained in these books.
All those who answered the questionnaire receiv-
ed additional books as gifts.
Bibliographies
It was a year for taking stock of national resources,
of books already available in one's own country or
in neighbouring countries - books for national
development, for children in and out of school,
for self-education or for leisure-time reading.
During Book Year, for example, the International
Institute for Children's, Juvenile and Popular
Literature announced plans for the preparation of
annotated bibliographies of children's books from
all over the world, and many countries or institu-
tions within these countries produced recomrnen-
ded bibliographies for school libraries of their
own. One West European state published a low-
cost paperback book containing a selection of
some 100 books which had had the greatest in-
fluence on mankind, and a neighbouring state was
stimulated by International Book Year to lay the
24
groundwork for the establishment of a national
bibliography.
But one could say that the many exhibitions
of books concerned with a particular theme, or on
a single subject, were in a sense bibliographies
for visitors to the exhibitions without prior know-
ledge of or access to these books. One publishing
nation with centuries of publishing history staged
exhibitions on "How books for children are crea-
ted", as well as showing several centuries of
production of the national printing press, and a
display of "Books from their origin to our day".
For Book Year, too, works such as "Liber
Librorum" were published. This particular title
is a richly illustrated volume retracing 5000
years of printed and manuscript books on four
continents,the fruit of co-operationamong leading
specialists in archaeology, palaeography, biblio-
graphy, and art history. A "Book about Books"
was published in another country, consisting of a
collection of texts on the problems of reading,
writing, and publishing in the past, present, and
future, distributed in a pocket book format. A
Polish publisher issued an "Encvclopaedia of the
Book", the first study of its kind to appear in his
country, providing a picture of present knowledge
about books, the arts of writing and of multiple
copy printing, of illumination, binding, paper and
Drinting, librarianship, and reading - among
other subjects.
5. OPERATION BOOK YEAR INSIDE UNESCO
T o handle both the preparatory and the on-going
tasks of International Book Year, the Director-
General set up a special unit within the Office of
Free Flow of Information and International Ex-
changes to serve as the organizing and co-
ordinating centre for the Unesco Secretariat as
a whole. The unit's staff of five, drawn from
existing Unesco personnel and dividing their res-
ponsibilities on a regional and linguistic basis,
worked in co-operation with liaison officers de-
signated by the several programme sectors and
with the various bureaux and offices concerned.
Planned on the same lines as the unit set up
to handle the functioning of International Educa-
tion Year - 1970, the Book Year Unit was aclear-
ing house for ideas and recommendations (of
other groups, Unesco-sponsored committees,
regional development meetings, the professional
support committee, and of Member States). The
Unit advised and assisted countries and organiza-
tions, upon request, in implementing initiatives
taken to obtain the objectives set forth in the four
themes approved by the General Conference.
In a note of the Director-General of Unesco
to all departments, secretariat officers wherever
they were stationed were asked to explore every
possibility offered to create participation in Book
Year, in their daily contacts with the permanent
delegations, National Commissions, and inter-
national governmental and non-governmental
organizations, in meetings at headquarters or
elsewhere, discussions with experts, with the
general public, and with missions in the M e m b e r
States. The Book Year Unit functioning within
the Secretariat was charged with furnishing the
necessary information and documentation.
Liaison within the Secretariat itself was taken
most seriously. Inter -sectoral meetings were
held, attended by representatives of the various
departments, who outlined what they were doing
or could do. The exchange of information made
it possible for the small co-ordinating unit to
take advantage of Unesco's world-wide facilities,
and was a continuing source of fresh ideas for the
pursuit of the programme.
Among the principal information activities of
the Unit was the production of the Book Year
Newsletter, in English, French, Spanish and
Russian editions, totalling 21,000 copies monthly,
in addition to a separately published Arabic ver-
sion. Fifteen issues appeared from August 1971
to December 1972. The Newsletter became a
suggestion box whose best ideas were available
for immediate exploitation. It was also used to
-
disseminate information on lesser known aspects
of the book industry, such as "The r61e of the
book designer" ("... Properly equipped and pro-
perly used as a collaborator, [he-/ can play a
key part, particularly in educational and scienti-
fic publishing, in establishing the communications
structure of the book (languages, images and all)
at a stage prior to that of making choices about
format, quantity of words, or typography". ) One
whole issue of the Newsletter, dated December
1971, on the eve of the official opening of Book
Year, was taken up by the text of the Charter of
the Book.
T w o issues of Unesco Courier were devoted
to Book Year, and there was other reporting in
Unesco Chronicle and Unesco Features. Other
periodicals published by Unesco carried occasion-
al articles on aspects of book development,while
other departments of Unesco tailored their 1972
activities to book-related programmes (e.g., in
the education sector, to school textbook improve-
ment, publications for the handicapped, literacy
and adult education; in the natural science sec-
tor, to promotion of scientific and technical
publications).
The Book Year Unit also produced a press
kit containing background information on the
world campaign, and a series of sample inter-
views that could be conducted in local communi-
ties with officials, educators, and book trade
professionals. There was also a 20-minute 16 mm
colour television film specially produced for
InternationalBook Year by Unesco's Office of
Public Information, and shown in 81 countries:
"Open Book", with separate sound-tracks in
English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic.
The Book Year "Programme of Action" was pub-
lished as a Unesco brochure and fifty thousand
quadrilingual posters bearing the Year symbol
were produced for world-wide distribution.
As an exampleof how the Unesco Secretariat's
material was integrated into country programmes:
One national committee, whose country was also
headquarters for regional book development pro-
grammes, translated all Unesco publications con-
cerned with Book Year into the regional language.
This helped facilitate the international exchange
of information, allowed each area to know what
was happening in other regions and nations.
In order to finance promotional Book Year
activities (such as consultative services to inter-
national non-governmenta1 organizations, publi-
cations and meetings) and to cover the travel
costs connected with them, Unesco provided
$49, 850 for the biennium 1971-1972. In addition,
a further s u m of $50,000 was made available
under Unesco's Programme of Participation in
the activities of Member States. for various
national projects including the establishment of
book development councils, training courses, in-
creased production of books for children, studies
on reading habits and library development.
6. CO-OPERATIONWITH THE BOOK WORLD
A notable event in Book Year preparations, and
later in the carrying out of programmes, was the
setting up of a 14-member InternationalSupport
Committee, with broad geographical coverage, tc
represent the various professions involved with
books: authors and translators, librarians and
documentalists, publishers and booksellers.
One of the major initiatives taken by the
Committee was the formulation of a Charter of
the Book, which was approved at a meeting held
at the Royal Library of Brussels in October 1971.
The Charter was the first document of this nature
to be approved ona world-widescale. Its Pream-
ble expresses the conviction that policies should
be adopted to encourage the widest possible use
of the printed word. The Charter then goes on
to set forth ten principles, each of which is brief-
ly annotated. The principles are as follows:
(i) Everyone has the right to read.
(ii) Books are essential to education.
(iii)Society has a special obligation to estab-
lish the conditions in which authors can
exercise their creative r61e.
(iv) A sound publishing industry is essential to
national development.
25
(VI Book manufacturing facilities are neces-
sary to the development of publishing.
(vi Booksellers provide a fundamental service
as a link between publishers and the read-
ing public,
(vi Libraries are national resources for the
transfer of information and knowledge,
for the enjoyment of wisdom and beauty.
Documentation serves books by preserv-
ing and making available essential back-
ground material.
The free flow of books between countries
is an essential supplement to national sup-
plies and promotes international under-
standing.
Books serve internationalunderstanding
and peaceful co-operation.
Published as a pamphlet in French and English
under the sponsorship of the Support Committee,
the Charter was also separately issued in varying
formats by other countries and organizations,and
translated into other languages. In at least one
country, an abridged version appeared on the in-
side and back covers of paperback books issued
during 1972.
O n the recommendation of the Support C o m -
mittee, copies of the Charter were dispatched to
all international non-governmentalorganizations
in relationship with Unesco for consideration at
their 1972 meetings. The Charter was formally
adopted at conferences of a number of these or-
ganizations directly connected with the book world,
including those grouping authors, translators,
publishers, librarians and booksellers. Several
national professional organizations also adopted
it, and it was endorsed by the meetings on book
development held during Book Year.
The meetings of the Support Committee were
also the occasions for concrete suggestions from
and to the active members of the book trade, who
kept the implementation of Book Year programmes
under constant review. Members exchanged re-
ports of progress in their respective professions
and associations and secured the help of colleagues
in other professions and areas. At their first
meeting, they had suggested that book publishers
utilize the Book Year symbol on their publications:
many were to follow through. Out of the meetings
of the Committee grew the idea for a permanent
inter-professional body representing the book
community. (It would subsequently come into exis-
tence as the International Book Committee, to be
described in a subsequent section).
And at a meeting held in N e w York in Decem-
ber 1972, the Committee recommended that the
Book Year symbol be retained as the permanent
hallmark of book promotion throughout the world,
while "Books for All" would be the permanent
-
slogan for book development both to appear on
posters, bookmarks, stamps and on other appro-
priate supports for the long-term future.
26
7. R E S E A R C H FOR THE FUTURE
For the world would go on; there would be other
years after Book Year. And one kind of activity
during 1972 was research to prepare this future.
Experts met to examine one aspect or another of
book development, of author training for example,
or the optimum use of libraries, of the reading
habit and ways to encourage it. Several National
Commissions undertook studies of reading re-
sources available to children. Thus Norway car-
ried out a study comparing the numbers of books
available to their own children and to pupils at
-
similar age levels in developing countries a
study designed to serve, and which would even-
tually and inevitably serve, the latter. In another
European state, a research unit for the study of
books for children was set up in the National
TAbrarv on the occasion of a Children's Book
Week, while at the same time a critical catalogue
of juvenile literature was issued.
Adult readership (and non-readership)was
another target for scrutiny. There were debates
between readers and non-readersin one country,
lectures by psychologists and psychiatrists on
reader motivation: all activities which prepared
the future. There were plans for setting aside
premises for the use of writers in rural areas,
particularly in historic buildings in the process
of restoration, plans which would bear fruit when
these authors wrote their books and the books
were published and made available to readers.
Indeed, a good many Book Year projects involv-
ing writers and readers were aimed at the future.
They m a y be cited in a history of International
Book Year, but the final evaluation will not be
made until a new generation has grown up.
There was research, too, into printing pro-
blems, particularly on the development of typo-
graphy for certain non-Latin alphabets such as
Lao, Thai, and Amharic. Attention was given to
the special problems involved in publishing for
the blind, the aged. Book Year provided many
opportunities in many regions for serious reflec-
tion on the place of books in a world of multiply-
ing media - and the consensus was that the new
media would not replace the old, but gave rise,
in the words of Unescols Director-GeneralRen6
Maheu, to the need for a composite approach
combining printed word and picture.
These investigations were also tangible acti-
vities of the Year, even if the full benefits would
not be manifest in the short run. Book Year,
after all, was not only the culmination and fruit
of much planning over a period of years, it was
an element in a larger and longer-range pro-
gramme, the United Nations Second Development
Decade, in which book production and distribution
were recognized as being factors in long-term
development.
 E. A programme for the future
Every step taken during Book Year.. every act
accomplished, pointed to the need for more of the
same. F e w individuals or organizations involved
failed to take out of their experience the convic-
tion that the work had to go on. Often the s a m e
ideas, the same methods, the same infrastructure
would serve.
For the truth is, everything needs to be done
in book development. There is an extraordinary
potential in the industrial nations, and the pro-
mise is for more book buying, borrowing, and
reading, less expensive production and distribu-
tion. There are copyright problems to be solved,
some involving property rights, others concerned
with the human rights of authors. The new nations
need new books, need them quickly for their
schools and literacy-reinforcementprogrammes,
but they are in equal need of book industries,
printing plants, paper mills. Everything needs
to be done.
International Book Year was the encouraging
beginning. It focused attention on the needs, mar-
shalled the energies of interested forces - often
discovering allies in institutions and individuals
who should have been concerned but were not
aware of the problems, or who had not realized
that the challenge concerned them, and that they
could help.
But it was only the beginning.
B O O K S FOR ALL
The first tangible action after Book Year, as far
as the outside world of book makers and readers
is concerned, is a small-format, easy to handle
and easy to read programme of action, "Books
for All". Compiled from the s u m m a of experience
and suggestions produced by Book Year, it was
published in the autumn of 1973, and earmarked
for broad distribution. The first recipients were
Unesco's 131 Member States and some 400
internationalnon-governmentalorganizations.
But in a letter to governments,Unesco's Director-
General Ren6 Maheu pointed out that the list of
suggestions in the programme should not be con-
sidered exhaustive, for it is designed to stimu-
late further initiatives in solving problems in
prochcing, distributing, and using books, taking
into account the particular circumstances in each
country or region.
The 42-page booklet makes the intention
clear from the outset: to promote world-wide
action in favour of books and reading. "The Book
is a passport to the world", it begins, "breakiiig
through the barriers of time and space, profer-
ring the joy of fulfillment. In can be a faithful
companion, a spinner of dreams, or a source of
wisdom, at the choice of its user. For it is this
freedom of choice both of subject and of objective
that makes the printed work unique among the
means of communication".
After the ideal, the concrete: The "Books
for All" programme is based upon the four themes
of Book Year already cited. Under each theme
heading, suggestions are given for national, re-
gional, and internationalaction. But a unique
feature of this little manual is that the responsi-
bility for carryingout these suggestions is shared,
by governments (i. e., actions that only govern-
ments can take, such as granting tax relief to
publishers in developing countries), by institutions
(e.g. establishing children's reading rooms in
libraries), by educators, authors, publishers.
A final section of "Books for All" spells out
means of action for carrying out the programme,
via the National Commissions for Unesco, the
Book Committees, Unesco associations, the mass
media. The National Book Development Councils
already functioning in many countries, inter-
national specialized agencies, non-governmental
organizations, are all to be enlisted in this effort,
as is Unesco itself.
27
THE INTERNATIONAL BOOK COMMITTEE
The book world's inter-professionalbody, created
originally as the International Book Year Support
Committee (described earlier in this report), was
to die a3d be born again during Book Year Plus
One. In September 1973 at Bogota, the first meet-
ing of the 3ew International Book Committee
brought together leaders of the major organiza-
tions of book-makers and users. There were
many veterans of the Book Year Support Commit-
tee, but also a number of new participants. They
had a c o m m o n purpose: to pursue the major lines
of activity of book promotion and development into
the next decade.
In this way, the innovative group constituted
in 1971 on an ad hoc basis would become a perma-
nent body, broadly representative professionally
and geograDhically, and determined to maintain the
inter-professionalco-operationbegun during Book
Year. The meeting came up with such concrete
proposals as the recommendation to publish pam-
phlets on the training of booksellers and distribu-
tors of books, to study the techniques of establish-
ing and operating national book development
councils, as well as to organize exchanges of
information on research into reading habits.
The Committee founded an International Book
Award, "to accord recognition for outstanding
services rendered by a person or institution to
the cause of books in such fields as authorship,
publishing, production, book design, translation,
library services, bookselling, encouragement of
the reading habit and promotion of international
co-operation". Through this award, and for the
first time, the book world felt that it had achieved
an identity of his own. In the future, certainly,
it would be easier to conceive and to carry out
internationalactivity on behalf of books.
BOOK N E E D S OF THE FUTURE
In a sense, the first overview of Book Year took
place in Moscow in September 1972, when a re-
presentative group of the world of books and
observers from international organizations,
convened by Unesco, met to discuss Books in the
Service of Peace, Humanism, and Progress. In
fact the symposium covered other Book Year
themes as well: Books in the Service of Educa-
tion, A Policy for Promotion of the Reading Habit,
Encouragement of Authorship and Translation,
Production and Distribution of Books (including
Development of Libraries). The participants
agreed that there were serious inequalities in
book production and distribution, and they had to
be remedied. But the measure could not be mere-
ly a quantitative one: books should also promote
mutual understanding and peace.
28
Representatives of developing nations argued
that books, by "rehabilitating" and publicizing
national cultures, had rnuch to do with the acces-
sion of their countries to full independence. The
list was long of problems that could be solved by
more and better books.
"The Book Hunger", published by Unesco as
a contribution to International Book Year, puts
the problem succinctly:
"While the connexinn between education and
economic and social progress no longer has to
be proved, it is important that the controllers
of national purse-strings become aware that
education consists of more than simply class-
rooms and teachers. Textbooks and other
printed matter, along with the newer education-
al materials, must also be budgeted. The
climate of educational change makes ever more
urgent revised and better textbooks, tailored
to the new situations, and in ever-increasing
quantities. T o the extent that it is possible,
these should be locally written and produced
so as to derive strength from national particu-
larities and to reinforce the kind of national
understanding without which international c o m -
prehension is not really possible. I'
Book Year, then, was both a first step to a solu-
tion of the hunger for books, and an opportunity
to bring together a shopping list of requirements
and the groups and individuals able to do some-
thing about them. The clear evidence that books
were a major factor in development led to the
determination of the world body of nations parti-
cipating in Unesco to launch a long-term pro-
gramme, in which IBY 1972 represented both the
overture and the first movement. It has been
suggesred that the book promotion campaign con-
tinue right through the 1970's, possibly culmina-
ting in a second International Book Year early in
the 1980's.
THE FUTURE BEGINS
As "Books for All" makes its way around the
world, becoming a source of initiatives on the
national, provincial, community levels, and as
book trade professionals carry out the tasks they
assigned to themselves when the needs and pos-
sibilities were made clearer during Book Year,
Book Year becomes in fact Book Decade. Perhaps
the best indication of Book Year's lasting effects
is the decision of M e m b e r States which had set
up national ad hoc committees to maintain them
as permanent institutions, with all the promise
of regular and periodic programmes that this
implies.
Reports received by Unesco indicate that as
much activity was planned for 1973 and the years
beyond in some areas as for Book Year itself,
and some of the new activity was better planned,
thanks to lessons learned during the world c a m -
paign, even more pertinent to final objectives.
Promises made in 1972 were fulfilled in Book
Year Plus One, including increased production of
new lines of textbooks and children's books, the
pursuit of book weeks as regular annual events in
countries whose first book week took place during
Book Year, the continued and expanded utilization
of literary prizes, contests, fairs.
Thus a large Asian nation submitted a pro-
g r a m m e for the future broken down into the Book
Year themes (e.g., Use of books in the service
of education. international understanding and
peaceful co-operation). A report to Unesco from
a South Pacific nation during 1973 outlined plans
for "Operation Book Flood", in which two primary
schools of multiracial character were to be
"flooded" wiTh books at every classroom level, in
a proposed ratio of 500 books for every 35 chil-
-
dren an experiment which will be worth follow-
ing, and emulating.
Continued Unesco co-ordination with the
many-leveled institutions co-operating in Book
Year, the publication Book Promotion News, the
periodic meetings on the regional level (and of
book professionals on the international level)
-
create a permanent activity of what before IBY
1972 - was haphazard, sporadic contact. The
international book community exists, now.
A particularly succinct summary of the need
for a continuing internationalbook programme
emerged from an 11-country conference held in
the last month of Book Year:
'I.. . If InternationalBook Year has no other
result, it will have been invaluable if it leads
to a planned, a determined, a realistic and a
zealous effort, on the part of developed and
developing countries and internationalagencies
working together, to move toward providing
for the people of all the world a generous ac-
c w q to books that can help open for them the
door to a more abundant and a more meaningful
future".
It was in this same spirit that the General Con-
ference of Unesco, at its seventeenth session in
November 1972, unanimously adopted a resolu-
tion(l) inviting M e m b e r States and international
organizations to pursue activities initiated during
Book Year, so as to attain the far-reaching goals
fixed in the four themes which were the kev-note
for the future.
1. The text of this resolution will be found in the
Appendix.
29
 F. An appraisal of book year
The way to begin an appraisal of the achievements
of International Book Year might be to go back to
an earlier stage, to discover what the planners of
Book Year hoped to accomplish, and then to c o m -
pare it with actual events. The report of the
meeting of the Planning Committee for Inter-
national Book Year, held at Unesco headquarters
in Paris in April 1971, set forth the grand lines
of this international campaign, indicated which
groups would be involved, what they would be res-
ponsible for. The preliminary report of the
Director-Generalof Unesco on InternationalBook
Year, released in September 1972, when the pat-
tern of activity was set and many of the reports
from M e m b e r States and private and public parti-
cipating groups were in, demonstrates that a
large part of the original plan was realized: pro-
jects were undertaken, research was done, meet-
ings were held, fulfilling not only the letter but
the spirit of the original programme.
But of course it will be many years, assum-
ing that quantitative measure is ever possible
before one will be able to learn how many more
books were published, how many readers formed,
because of activities carried out under the banner
of InternationalBook Year. The authors, trans-
lators, publishers and other members of the book
professions who were encouraged to commence
activity, or to orient it along more efficient or
socially productive lines, cannot be counted,nor
can the number of readers introduced to libra-
-
ries libraries which m a y not even have existed
before Book Year began. Then, too, the very
diversity of the international and national pro-
grammes makes it difficult to compare them. The
effects of a national book week, or a new library,
the stimulation of creating and publishing books
for children, are hardly measurable, nor can
their effect on one country be compared to their
effect on another, not to speak of the differing
impact of efforts in industrial and developing
countries.
30
It is possible, though, to remark the changed
situation of the book world, the new mechanisms
for international (and above all inter-professional)
co-operation,the new lifeline established between
government, financial, and industrial forces on
one hand, and the world of books and of their
readers on the other. Certain patterns were es-
tablished during Book Year which won't be aban-
doned. Those who are conscious of how the
development needs of their countries can be met
through the knowledge transmitted by books are
in a better position to do something about it.
Those who provide assistance are in a better
position to understand their r61e than they could
have been before.
O n the world level, then, Book Year and the
regional meetings on book development which
preceded and accompanied it were steps toward
awareness - of needs, resources, priorities.
They provided the first opportunities for co-
operation between institutions and individuals in
the production and diffusion of reading materials.
The clear evidence of the reports from M e m -
ber States, some of the highlights of which have
been summarized in the preceding pages, is that
Book Year brought about a reinforcement of the
infrastructure of book industries and distribution
networks in developing nations, while it opened
or consolidated links between the major book-
producing nations and the countries which for
some time to come, in the absence of national
capabilities adequate to their needs, will be
using their books.
F r o m the report of one national committee
in a nation whose size and resources do not allow
it to rival the major book-producing nations:
"International Book Year (IBY) has given
overall stimulus to book awareness in this
country. It also strengthened the book pub-
lishing and promotion agency. Several institu-
tions involved themselves voluntarily by pub-
lishing IBY literature gratis, or sponsoring
 IBY slogans on television and in newspapers.
The results of IBY have been stupendous
and far-reaching. For the first time a book
census has been conducted in this country to
know what and how much and on what subjects
is published in this country. There were no
I
reliable statistics on book production and this
is the first attempt to collect them. I'
One would like to add that the very act of having
to provide reports to the international community
on what it would do, was doing, had done for Inter-
national Book Year, led many institutions to take
stock of their capabilities, and probably moved
some of them to take actions they would not other-
wise have undertaken at that time. And finally,
that a multi-purpose permanent document is now
available to anyone in the wide world involved, or
wishing to become involved, in producing, distri-
buting, or promoting the reading of books: the
programme of action contained in "Books for All".
31
 G.The lessons of an international year:
A summing-up
Conceivably the organizers of future book promo-
tion activities on an international scale, as well
as within a particular country or region, will
want to refer to the experience acquired by the
organizers and participants in Book Year 1972.
They will soon abandon the effort to quantify re-
- -
sults, there being as w e have seen no accept-
ed measure of the effect of a book fair or of a
new library, of the setting up of a publishing
house, or the training of librarians or booksellers,
although the world's educators know how impor-
tant books are to the pursuit of a nation's goals
or the transmission of its culture. The watch-
word, during Book Year, was book promotion;
the evidence is written large that this cause was
ably served throughout the world.
Equally significant are the testimonials of
those most concerned with getting books made
and read, from the authors and the publishers at
the beginning of the chain to the educators and
librarians at the end. Without a dissenting voice
the m e n and women of the world of books attribute
significant gains to Book Year and its aftermath.
ADVANCE PREPARATIONS
Any evaluation of the achievements of Inter-
national Book Year must begin with a word about
the importance of advance preparations. It willbe
first recalled that the Unesco GeneralConference,
in 1964, decided to launch a world programme for
book development. At that time, the General
Conference concluded that the expansion of pub-
lishing in each country would accelerate the
development of education and should lead to the
formulation of national policies which would in-
clude book development in overall economic and
social planning. T o implement this programme,
Unesco organized from 1966 to 1972, in Asia,
Africa, Latin American and the Arab States a
series of meetings of experts to draw up plans of
32
action for each region, which resulted inter alia
in the creation of regional book development
centres. The need for an international effort to
assess the r8le of books in the world emerged
progressively from these regional conferences
and was placed on Unesco's agenda as early as
196 9, when a meeting of experts from the profes-
sional organizations of the book world had discus-
sed these questions at Unesco headquarters.
Before the end of the following year, the decision
to mount the Book Year operation was approved
by Unesco's General Conference. Early in 1971,
the much utilized "Programme of action" was
already published. B y 1 January 1972, each
participant in Book Year knew what his r61e could
be; it was therefore a shorter step to actual ful-
fillment of that r6le.
THE "YEAR" PRINCIPLE
Among international "years" within the United
Nations System there have been International
Geophysical Year (1957-1958), World Refugee
Year (1959-1960), World Seed Year (1961), Inter-
national Years of the Quiet Sun (1965-19661,as
well as International Rice Year (1966), Inter-
national Tourist Year (1 9671, International Year
for Human Rights (1968). Others are in the offing;
World Population Year and Year of the Tree (1 974),
International Women's Year (I9751, International
Year for Oral Traditions and Folk Music and
Dancing (1 976), to say nothing of international
years which have been postponed or not agreed
to by international instances.
The most significant "years", of course, are
those which are dedicated to the accomplishment
of a specific programme of activity. They are
the rarer kind of year, because of the work de-
manded for their planning and implementation.
A prise de conscience, certainly, but also an
attempt to deal with a problem in concrete terms.
A lesson implied by the very success of Inter-
national Book Year would be that the idea behind
the "year" should be clear in the mind of its pro-
moters, and the world in need of the message.
And the year must be fully prepared for.
Some years proclaimed by national or inter-
national bodies are symbolical years, of spiritual
or humanitarian interest yet without substantive
content (nor, in fairness, are they meant to have
any). A fund-raising drive, a commemoration of
-
religious or patriotic inspiration all these can
be "years", as well as "weeks" or even "days".
The question had been raised, will be raised
again, as to the value of afull year. Of course
the answer in the case of Book Year - 1972 was
that a twelve-monthperiod was by no means too
long, because of the time required to plan, to
mobilize governmental and/or private support, to
carry out programmes (in countries with large
territories, difficult communications, for exam-
ple). Much activity, as w e have seen, began
before 1 January, and a considerable number of
programmes were pursued after the official close
of the Year; for many of the programmes were
designed to be permanent or recurring.
There is another consideration. The ex-
perience with international days or weeks is that
they do not always conform to national practices
varying seasons and temperatures, official or
religious holidays, school terms, etc. The value
of an international year is that such problems
need not arise. Depending on the exigencies of
the fiscal or school calendar the year can even
begin earlier or later in a particular country or
region without depriving the local effort of the
momentum of the international campaign. And if
a campaign cannot be sustained over a 12-month
period, one can provide for peak periods during
which the major effort will be concentrated. Thus,
for International Book Year, the months of M a y
and September were proposed, if national condi-
tions allowed, for a concentration of activities.
S E L E C T I O N OF T H E M E S
Experience has proved that the themes chosen
for International Book Year -
reduced to four,
in comparison with the twelve for International
-
Education Year (1970) effectively covered the
broad range of problems involved in the produc-
tion, distribution, and utilization of books.
Naturally the themes are inter-connected. It is
evident, for example, that it is not possible to
encourage the activities of writers without at the
same time focusing on the increased production
of books and promotion of the reading habit, any
more than it is possible to promote post-school
education without expanding the existing network
of libraries. But as was demonstrated in a
detailed analysis presented during the Symposium
on "Books in the Service of Peace, Humanism
and Progress" organized by Unesco in Moscow in
September 1972, the themes of International Book
Year were nevertheless quite distinct one from
the other, so that it was possible to group, under
each of them, very specific activities. Thus the
General Conference of Unesco, in the resolutions
it adopted in 1972 on the follow-upto Book Year,
decided to employ these same themes as objec-
tives of a long-term programme of promotion of
books and reading. Only the order was modified:
At the top of the list the General Conference
placed "Books in the Service of Education, Inter-
national Understanding and Peaceful Co-operation''
a theme which in fact best reflects the long-term
aspirations of Unesco: peace, based on the res-
pect of human rights and of justice.
In the s a m e way, it was decided to retain the
familiar rallying points of Book Year 1972, the
Book Year symbol and slogam. During Book Year
itself, the graphic design symbolizing the frater-
nity of books had been easy to employ and easy
to reproduce. It will continue to be seen where-
ver books are available. The brief slogan "Books
for All" was also easy to remember, to trans-
late, to fit on to posters and other display mater-
- ial. T i m e spent in choosing the right symbols,
the most easily transmittable and translatable
slogans, is well rewarded during an international
campaign of this scope.
SHARING COSTS
A n attempt has been made earlier in this study
to indicate known cash expenditure (by Unesco
and a few governments whose Book Year budgets
were identifiable outlays). It is clear that the
budget of Unesco was modest in comparison to
what governments and other institutions gave;
obviously, the lion's share of expenditures were
made by the uncounted thousands of official and
private bodies below the national level, and much
of this outlay took the form of voluntary work-
-
gifts of labour or donations of material as well
as the wealth of creative effort which supple-
mented or often replaced material contributions.
The end product of Book Year was obviously the
s u m total of all the governmental, provincial,
municipal, private foundation, and voluntary
organizational as well as individual support. The
more widespread the campaign, the more indivi-
duals and groups participate, the larger this in-
calculable expenditure aJst be. Book Year was
a major global effort; its total cost, shared by
an unknown number of rank and file participants,
exceeds the best imaginative guess.
33
MULTILEVEL ACTION
In each participating M e m b e r State, Book Year
activity usually transpired on several levels at
once. At the top: the National Unesco Commis-
sions, or the IBY Committees set up specifically
for the year. Also at the top: the professional
organizations, permanent institutions or ad hoc
groups set up especially for Book Year. Organi-
zations of every kind, whatever their major goals
or reasons for existence, participated in one or
another activity (or in an integrated year-long
programme), the internationalnon-governmental
organizations using their unique networks of af-
filiates throughout the world. Not least, the vast
infrastructures of schools and libraries were
mobilized for Book Year. Obviously not every
"internationalyear" will have available an exis-
ting infrastructure of this scale and broad distri-
bution; in some cases it will be necessary to find
an equivalent medium to reach local populations.
A FRAMEWORK FOR ACTIVITIES
F o r any campaign of this scale, it is of course
essential to have a clear idea of what can be done
-
at the outset. Before, during and even after - questionnaires, contests and other events calling
Book Year 1972, the planners made sure to pro-
vide a continuingflow of suggestions and proposals
(e.g., the programme of action, which contained
specific nuts-and-boltssuggestions tailored to
the needs of book development, aimed at particu-
lar groups). And it was not sufficient to send out
a single set of suggestions, at a single point in
time. The effort of inspiring and co-ordinating
activities would have to be pursued from the
beginning of the year to its close, in the form of
monthly newsletters, occasional brochures, press
34
kit already referred to, the posters and audio-
visual materials.
NO SINGLE YARDSTICK
The concrete progress reported by Member
States and organizations m a y be taken as evidence
of the validity of such a campaign, as well as of
the serious intent of its inventors. Then the les-
son of International Book Year for the organizers
of other international years m a y be this: The
simple act of giving a name to a year does nothing
for the year or for the cause to which it m a y be
dedicated. When, on the other hand, the initia-
tors themselves consider it more than a slogan,
when there is adequate co-ordination with the in-
stitutions and individuals who are most concerned,
there is a strong likelihood that hopes will be-
come realities.
Organizers of future internationalyears will
discover that there is no reliable yardstick for
evaluating achievement. With respect to Inter-
national Book Year, many national co-ordinating
committees undoubtedly could provide tangible
evidence of grass roots support, for example, in
the form of spontaneous letters, or replies to
for public participation. O n the international
level, we might accept for purposes of evaluation
the thousands of newspaper and magazine stories,
from periodicals the world over, received at
Unesco as well as the stacks of reports from
M e m b e r States, from private and public associa-
tions. But the real proof remains intangible. It
resides in the minds and hearts of men, women
and children all over the world who participated
because International Book Year was their
concern.
 Appendix
Resolution proclaiming 1972 International Book Year
(adopted by the General Conference of Unesco in November 1970)
The General Conference,
Considering the importance of the written word
for the progress of human civilization,
Considering also that books and periodicals, along
with the other material means of expressing
thought, play an essential r6le in social life
and its development,
Considering that they perform a fundamental func-
tion in the realization of Unesco's objectives,
namely peace, development, the promotion of
human rights and the campaign against racial-
ism and colonialism,
Noting that the basic r61e of the Organization in
this field is to promote the writing, production,
distribution of, and exchange of information on,
books, particularly in accordance with the
spirit of the United Nations Charter and of the
Constitution of Unesco,
Noting further that international non-governmen-
tal organizations of authors, publishers, lib-
rarians, booksellers and other professional
bodies have expressed interest in an Inter-
national Book Year to focus public attention on
the r61e of books in society,
Having considered the report of the Director-
General on the matter (document 16 C/83Rev.),
I with all those throughout the world who are
1. Proclaims 1972 International Book Year;
I1
2. Invites M e m b e r States, together with compe-
tent and interested internationalnon-govern-
mental organizations:
(a) to initiate and carry out programmes of
activities designed to promote the writing,
production, circulation and distribution of
books and to make the International Book
Year a national reading year;
(b) to establish committees, in co-operation
with National Commissions, for the pre-
paration and celebrationof the International
Book Year at the national level;
(c) to formulate the principles of book policies,
taking into account the objectives of Unesco
and the particular r6le of the printed word
for the transmission of knowledge and the
stimulation of ideas;
(d) to encourage an appreciation, particularly
among young people, of the best in thought,
philosophy and literature by making books
generally and cheaply available;
I11
3. Authorizes the Director-General:
(a) to co-operate with regional book centres,
with organizations of authors, publishers
of books and periodicals, printers, book-
sellers and librarians, with interested
professional organizations and associations,
with the principal groups in a position to
contribute to the International Book Year
in the fields of education, science, culture
and communication, and, more generally,
interested in the dissemination of the writ-
ten word;
(b) to study the problems involved in the pro-
duction, circulation and distribution of
books and periodicals on the basis of a
thorough survey of the world book situation,
carried out as broadly and effectively as
possible, as was the case for the Inter-
national Education Year in 1970;
(c)to encourage the dissemination of books and
reading habits among wide sections of the
population in M e m b e r States;
35
 (d) to devote the necessary attention, within
the framework of the regular programme
and, in particular, of the programme of
parti.cipation in the activities of Member
States, to assistance to developing coun-
tries in the training of book-publishing
personnel;
Resolution on International Book Year 1972 and its sequel
(adopted by the General Conference of Unesco in November 1972)
The General Conference,
Noting with satisfactionthe report of the Director-
-
General on International Book Year 1972 (doc-
ument 17 C/75 and Add.),
Recording its profound gratification with the re-
sults achieved by International Book Year,
which have provided a vast impetus for the
promotion of books and reading throughout the
world,
Noting that virtually all Member States drew up
and executed national programmes for Inter-
national Book Year and that many of these ini-
tiatives were conceived as long-term actions,
Noting with satisfaction that these results were
achieved with limited financial participation by
the Organization and that the establishment of
a small co-ordination unit in the Secretariat
proved to be an effective means of promoting
action.
Expressing gratification that the experience of
International Education Year was taken effec-
tively into account in the pursuit of Inter-
national Book Year,
Noting, in particular, that International Book
Year, under the slogan "Books for All", has
given renewed significance to Unesco's long-
term programme for book development,
Noting further that the series of regional meet-
ings for book development (Asia 1966, Africa
1968, Latin America 1969 and Arab States
1972) has resulted in the establishment of re-
gional centres and many new initiatives for
national book development as well as the adop-
tion of long-term programmes linked to the
Second United Nations Development Decade,
Noting further that the discussion which took
place at the symposium held in Moscow in
September 1972 on the subject of "Books in the
Service of Peace, Humanism and Progress",
and of which a summary is presented by the
Director-General in document 90 EX110 Add.,
makes it possible to carry out an analysis in
36
(e) to carry out the activities proposed in doc-
ument 16 C/83 Rev., and to 'this end to
draw, as appropriate, upon the relevant
budgetary provisions throughout the whole
programme and consider the setting up of
a special intersectoral unit for the pre-
paration, promotion and organization of
the International Book Year.
depth of the main themes of International Book
Year,
Emphasizing the indispensable contribution made
by international non-governmentalorganiza-
tions, professional associations and National
Commissions,
Noting the adoption of the text of the Charter of
-
Book by professional organizations concerned
with books,
Further emphasizing the active r61e played by
the mass media throughout the world in making
known to the general public the objectives of
International Book Year,
Reaffirming the rale of books in literary, scienti-
fic and philosophical culture and in the free flow
of ideas, as well as the importance of the qua-
lity and content of books in the realization of
Unesco's objectives, namely: peace and secur-
ity; promotion of universal respect for justice,
of the rule of law and of human rights, includ-
ing the protection of the rights of minorities
and the campaign against racialism and
colonialism; development; and the achieve-
ment of life-long education,
Considering the general preoccupation with the
promotion of the reading habit and the need to
synthesize the considerable body of research
already being carried out in this field,
1. Invites M e m b e r States:
(a) to pursue the initiatives undertaken during
International Book Year to achieve the aims
approved by the General Conference at its
sixteenth session, viz. :
(i) use of books in the service of edu-
cation, International understanding arid
peaceful co-operation;
(ii) encouragement of authorship and
translation, with due regard to copyright;
(iii) production and distribution of
books, including the development of
libraries;
(iv) promotion of the reading habit;
 (b) to give continuing consideration to the sug-
gestions for book development emerging
from the regional meetings convened by
Unesco;
(c) in co-operation with National Commissions,
to establish or reinforce national institutions
for book promotion, drawing wherever pos-
sible upon national committees for Inter-
national Book Year or other existing bodies
such as book development councils;
(c) to seek with Member States means to dis-
2. Urges the non-governmentalorganizations to
continue their fruitful association with each
other and with Unesco in promoting the objec-
tives of International Book Year;
4. Invites the Director-Generalto submit to the
3. Authorizes the Director-General:
(a) to publish in 1973 a digest and appraisal of
initiatives taken and techniques employed
during InternationalBook Year with a view
to making the most advantageous use of this
information for the future;
(b) to maintain, at an appropriate level in the
Communication Sector, a Co-ordination
Unit for Book Promotion which will provide
an integrated approach to planning and
policy of all Unesco activities relating to
the promotion of books both at Headquarters
and in the field, and will assist M e m b e r
States and internationalorganizations in
pursuing initiatives for the promotion of
books taken within the framework of Inter-
national Book Year;
seminate the publications of Unesco much
more broadly in libraries and teaching
institutions;
General Conference at its eighteenth session
a report on the launching of a further long-
term programme for book promotion, includ-
ing an examination of the possibility of re-
grouping and concentrating all book-related
activities in Unesco's programme with this
in view.
37
 U N E S C O PUBLICATIONS: N A T I O N A L DISTRIBUTORS

Argentina Editorial Losada. S.A.. Alsina 1131, Burnos AI-.

Australia Publications: Educational Supplies Pty. Ltd.. Box 33, Post Office BROOKVALE 2100. N.S.W. Periodicals;
Dominie Pry. Ltd.,,BOX 33, Post Office.BROOW.~LE2100,N.S.W.Sub-agent: United Nations Association
of Australia (Victorian Division), 5th Floor, 134-136 Flinders St.. MELBOUFINE 3000.
Austria Verlag Georg F r o m m e &Co., Arbeitergasse 1-7,1051 WIEN.
Belgium Jean D e Lannoy, 112.rue du TrBne. BRUXELLES 5. CCP 708 23.
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Brazil FundacBo Gehilio Vargas,Serviw de PublicacGes. caixa postal ZIIZO Praia de Botafogo 183. FUo DE JANEIRO
G.B.
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Burma Trade Corporation n.O (9). 550-552 Merchant Street, RANGOON.
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ZZI Yonge St, TORONTO (Ont.); 800 Granville St, VANCOUVER (B.C.).
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Ltda.. Pi0 Alfonso Garcia. carrera 4 .. non 36-119 y 36-125. CARTAGENA; J. G e d Rodriguez N.,Calle
17. 6-59, apartado nacional 83. GI-OY (Cundinarnarca). Editorial Losada Ltda.. Calle ISA, n.0 7-37.
apartado adreo 5829, apartado nacional 931. BOGOTA. Sub-depots: Edificio La Ceiba, Oficina 804 MEDELLfN;
Calle 37. n.O 14-73 Oficina,305, BUCARAMANGA; Edificio Zaccour. Oficina 736. CUI.
Congo Librairie populaire. B.P. 577, BRAZZAVILLE.
Costa Ricn Libreria Trejos SA., apartado 1313,SANJosB.Teldfonos: 2285 y 3200.
Cuba Pistribuidora Nacional de Publicaciones.Neptuno 674, LA ANA.
CYPNS MAM’.Archbishop Makarios 3rd Avenue, P.O. Box 1722,NICOSIA.
Czechoslovakia SNTL.Spalena SI. PRAHA I IPemanenfdisplay) ; Zahranicni Literatura. II Soukenicka. P m I.
For Slovakia only :Alfa Verlag. F’ublishers. Hurbanovo nam. 6.893 31 BRATISLAVA.
Dahomey Librairie nationale. B.P.294,PORTONovo.
Denmarh Ejnar Munksgaard Ltd., 6 Nerregade. 1165 K~BENXWN K
Egypt Librairie Kasr EI,NiI 38. rue Kasr El Nil.L E CUM. National Centre for Unesco Publications I Tlaat
Harb Street. Tahrir Square.CAIRO.
Ethiopia National Commission for Unesco, P.O. Box 2996, ADDIS A ~ A B A .
Finland Akateeminen Kiriakauma. I Keskuskatu. HI~SINJ~I.
France Librairie de I’Unesco,7 place de Fontenoy. 75700 PARIS.CCI‘ 1259a-qa.
French West Indies Librairie ‘Au Boul’ Micb’. I Rue Perrinon and 66 Avenue du Parquet, 972 FORT-DE-FRANCE (Martinique).
German Dem. Rep. Deutscher Buch-Export und -Import G m b H . Lenimtrasse 16, 701 LmpzrG.
Fed. Rep. of Germany Verlag Dokumentation,Postfach 148, Jaiserstrasse 13, 8023 MONCHEN-PULLACH. ‘The Courin’ (German
edition only): Bahrenfelder Cbaussee 160 HAMBURC-BAHBXNFELD.CCP 27 66 SO. For scientific maps only:
GEO C E N T R E , D-7STUTTGART 80, Postfach 800830.
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ACCRA; T h e University Bookshop of Ghana, ACCRA; T h e University Bookshop of Cape Coast; T h e Uni-
versity Bookshop of Legon, P.O. Box I. LEGON.
Greece Anglo-Hellenic Agency. 5 Koumpari Street, ATHINAI138.
Hong Kong Swindon Book Co.. 13-15 Lock Road, KOWLOON.
Hungary Akaddmiai Konyvesbolt Vdci U zz. BUDAPEST V. A.K.V. KonyvtLosok Boltja, Ndpkoztsrsadg utjs 16,
BUDAPET VI.
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India Orient Longman Ltd.; Nicol Road, Ballard Estate, BOMBAY I: 17 Chittaranjan Avenue CALCUTTA 13‘
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Stationery Co., 17 Park Street, CALCUTTA ;1 and Scindia House NEWDELHI;
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Indonesia Indira P.T..JI. Dr.Sam Fbtulangie 37, J-TA.
Iran Commission nationale iranienne pour I’Unesco, avenue Iranchahr Chomali no 300. B.P. 1533. T~&.AN.
Kharazmie Publishing and Distribution Co., 229 Daneshgahe Street. Shah Avenue, P.O. Box 1411486,
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Iraq McKenzie’s Bookshop, AI-Rashid Street, BAGHDAD; University Bookstore. University of Baghdad. ~. P.O.
Box 75. BAGHDAD.
Ireland T h e National Press,2 Wellington Road, Ballsbridge. DUBLIN 4.
Israel Emanuel Brown. formerly Blumstein’e Bookstores: 35 Allenby Road and 48 Nacblat Benjamin Street, TEL
AVIV;9 Shlomzion Hamalka Street, JERUSALEM.
Italy L I C O S A (Libreria Commissionaria Sansoni S.p.A.). via Lamarmorn 45. casella postale 552, 50121 FIRENZE.
Jamalca Sangster’s Book Stores Ltd..P.O. Box 366, 101 Water Lane, KINGSTON.
laoan Maruzen Co. Ltd., P.O.Box 5050. Tokyo International,TOKYO.
denya T h e ESA Ltd., P.O. Box 30167. NAIROBI.
Khmer Republic Librarie Albert Portail, 14.avenue Boulloche.PHNOM-PENH.
Republic of Korea Korean National Commission for Unesco. P.O. Box Central 64.S m m
Kuwait T h e Kuwait Bookshop Co. Ltd., P.O. Box 2942. KUWAIT.
Liberia Cole &Yancy Bookshops Ltd., P.O.Box 286. MONROVIA.
Libya Agency for Development of Publication and Distribution, P.O. Box 34-35. TRIPOLI.
Luxembourg Librairie Paul Bruck. zz Grande-Rue. LUXEMBOURG.
Madagascar Commission Nationale de la Rdpublique Malgache, Ministere de l’cducation Nationale. TANANARIVE.
Malaysia Federal Publications Sdn. Bhd.. Balai Berita, 31 Jalan Riong. KUALA LUMPUR
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Mauritius Nalanda Co. Ltd. 30 Bourbon Street, PORT-LOUIS.
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Monaco British Library. 30, boulevard des Moulins, MONTE-CARLO.
Netherlands N.V. Martinus Nijhoff, Lange Voorhout 9, ’e-GRAVmwAGB; Systemen Keesing. Ruysdaelstraat 71-75.1
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N e w Caledonia Reprex S.A.R.L., 89. 1572,N O U M ~ .
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Oxford Terrace, P.O. Box 1721,CHRISTCHURCH; Alma Street, P.O. Box 857. HAMILTON; Princes itreet.
P.0.Box 1104. DUNEDIN; Mulgrave Street, Private Bag, WELLINGTON.
Niger Librairie Manclert, B.P. 868. NIAMEY.
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of Nsukka; T h e University Bookshop of Lagos; T h e A h m a d u Bello University Bookshop of Zaria.
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Showoorns :Urdu Bazaar, LAHORH and 57-58 Murree Highway, G/6-1.ISLAMABAD. Pakistan Publications
Bookshop: Sarwar Road, UWALPINDI; Mirza Book Agency. 65 Shahrah Quaid-e-azarn. P.O. Box 729
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