Sharjah book fair abounds with love of visitors

SHARJAH: Khoula Al Mujaini, Director of Fair and Festivals, SBA, said that SIBF 2021 has achieved the distinguished honour of becoming the largest international book fair in the world. She stated that each year, the event provides new opportunities for publishers across the world to grow and prosper.

She added: “The incredible success of SIBF 2021 reflects the love and commitment of our visitors, guest publishers and participants to continue celebrating and upholding the writen word. As the book fair concludes, we reaffirm our commitment to build on Sharjah’s vision of bringing a bigger cultural feat for the world next year.”

A new addition to the SIBF 2021 agenda was a two-day National Libraries Summit, organised at the SBA headquarters in Sharjah from November 8–9, under the theme ‘Visibility, Engagement, Impact, and Collaboration’. The summit atracted more than 50 participants and 20 national libraries from across 20 countries and served as a plaform to engage in several discussions and four networking meetings. The summit was held in collaboration with the American Library Association.

Thirty-five speakers, 546 publishers and literary agents participated in the SIBF Publishers Conference. Five hundred and forty-six professionals and stakeholders across the publishing community including agents, authors, and 35 speakers, participated in the 11th SIBF Publishers Conference, organised in collaboration with the International Publishers Association.

The 8th edition of the Sharjah International Library Conference (SILC), held in collaboration with the American Library Association ( ALA) on November 10-11, convened 500 librarians and sector professionals from across the globe, and focused on technologies and trends shaping the sector’s future and facilitated collaborations and networking between guests to elevate the services delivered to their respective communities.

The sponsors and partners of SIBF included Etisalat (official sponsor), Sharjah Broadcasting Authority (official media partner), Abu Dhabi Media (media partner), Expo Centre Sharjah (strategic partner), Dar Al Khaleej (press partner) and Al Arabiya TV (media sponsor).