Frankfurt Book Fair: 'Buch Messe 2004'

摘要

Librarians, especially bibliographers and selectors responsible for collection development in western European languages and literatures, have had a tradition of attending the Frankfurt Book Fair. Also, as electronic publishing has evolved, many librarians have come to participate in seeing the range of products and publisher participation. However, for this conference attendee, these are first-time impressions after being on the "must-do" list for many years. The first "book fairs" in Germany began in the fifteenth century in Frankfurt and moved to Leipzig for a few centuries returning to Frankfurt after the Second World War. The Frankfurt Book Fair known as the "Buch Messe," is held at the Frankfort Messe or Convention Center and occupies 42 football fields (172,717 square meters) of exhibition space in a complex of 10 buildings with its own train station stop. The world's largest trade show for the publishing industry the Book Fair features both extensive exhibits (in 2004 there were 336,253 exhibited titles of which 74,147 were new titles; 6,638 exhibitors form 102 countries with 64 national stands - 41 percent of the exhibitors were from Germany and 59 percent from abroad), and more than 2,000 scheduled events. Organized by countries and regions and by subject group, the Fair does have a logic to it.