This year's Journées du livre et du droit d’auteur (Book and Copyright Days) slated for 20-26 April 2020, will take place digitally, as confirmed on Friday by the National Library of Luxembourg due to the current lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic; in effect, the events planned for the Book and Copyright Days have been cancelled, but a special virtual edition has been put in place with the flagship topic of this year being "New beginnings - En neien Ufank".
This subject was chosen in autumn 2019, at a time when COVID-19 was not yet topical, when the idea of a health and human crisis as we are going through it now made one think of novels of anticipation and not reality. After reflection, the organising committee decided not to change this flagship theme, today more relevant than ever.
History is, in fact, punctuated by key moments when it was necessary to free oneself from the past and, ultimately, reinvent oneself. This pandemic provokes deep changes, often painful, and reflections and awareness about the functioning of our economy and our lifestyles.
World Book Day remains, however, a time of celebration. As UNESCO highlights: "More than ever, at a time where most of the schools around the world are closed and people are having to limit (…) their time outside, the power of books should be leveraged to combat isolation, reinforce ties between people, expand our horizons, while stimulating our minds and creativity."
Indeed, books, literature and culture allow the creation of spaces for reflection, exchange and social ties, whether live or online. It is for this reason that the organising committee offers several online activities to promote reading, the dissemination of knowledge and to make trains run again by imagination.
The adjusted programme is available online on the BnL website (https://bnl.public.lu/fr/actualites/communiques/2020/april/activitesjdla.html), www.liesen.lu and on the Facebook page of the 2020 edition of the Book and Copyright Days.
Background information
The anniversary of the death of two great writers, William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, 23 April, was chosen in 1995 by the General Conference of Unesco as a symbolic date to pay worldwide homage to the book and its authors.
By emphasising the importance of the book as the oldest means of communication, and its role in the service of the transmission of knowledge and culture, which remains essential in the era of electronic media, the day aims to encourage everyone, young people in particular, to discover and rediscover the pleasure of reading, to understand the process of creating text and books, and the copyrights that ensue.
