2008 April 13 » Library & Literary Miscellany

13th April 2008

April Book Days, Weeks, and Months

In honor of the forthcoming National Library Week (number 50, it’s a biggie), this post highlights “Coming Soon” book days of April:

World Book and Copyright Day

Since 1995, April 23 has been designated as World Book and Copyright Day. The date commemorates the births and/or deaths of many famous authors–from Cervantes (death), Shakespeare (birth and death), and more. Read the Wikipedia article about World Book and Copyright Day to find out more about its origins and about how it is recognized in various locales around the world.

National Library Week

Yes, it’s the 50th! This year National Library Week 2008 runs from April 13-19, and the theme is “Join the circle of knowledge @ your library.” In honor of this day the American Library Association (ALA) has been publishing promotional videos.

Videos include:

While they’re all entertaining, my favorite is the one at the reference desk. A particularly clever feature of all of these videos is that while the credits are playing, numerous popular and not-as-popular books are providing the background images (subtle reader’s advisory, I’m lovin it (see Super Sized for more McDonald’s spinoff humor…)).

The National Library Week fact sheet also specifically marks Tuesday as National Library Worker’s Day: “National Library Workers Day, celebrated the Tuesday of National Library Week (April 15, 2008), is a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.” Sounds good to me . In addition, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has designated the month of April as School Library Media Month.

National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month has been around since 1996 (it has a ways to go to hit 50). Read the Wikipedia article about the history and purpose of National Poetry Month.