Tehran International Book Fair in the post-COVID period: in-person, virtual or hybrid

In the four decades after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the book fair has always had great importance, such that some experts in the field of culture consider it the most important cultural event of the past four decades. The active presence of creators and publishers alongside the attendance of millions of book enthusiasts has given this great cultural event a special standing. Now, as we stand on the threshold of holding the second virtual Tehran International Book Fair, two issues occupy the minds of actors and experts in the book field. First, holding the second round of the virtual book fair in light of the advantages, shortcomings, strengths, and weaknesses of the first fair and the steps that must be taken to hold it better; second, the situation that the Tehran International Book Fair will have in the post-COVID period. In this note the author leaves the first issue to the organizers who have been active in this field for years and addresses only the second issue.

What is likely, and the wish of all actors in the book and publishing industry, is holding the fair in person in the post-COVID period, with the attendance of millions of visitors and enthusiasts. But can the experience of the COVID period be set aside so easily and a return made to the former routine?

Many experts, in their comments, have regarded the post-COVID world as a new era of human life and believe that the world after COVID will in no way resemble the world before it. Does this belief and emphasis of the experts have in view only the coercive aspect of the epidemic and its consequences, or does it also take into account the experiences that decision-makers, planners, and actors acquire in this period, which are of high importance. The author's view is that the experiences gained in this period have changed many activities and processes, and this domain is far more important than the other effects of the COVID pandemic.

Over the past 32 years, holding the Tehran International Book Fair in person, which more closely resembled a large store with a series of side programs, has always had many supporters and opponents, which have previously been addressed in notes and conversations that the author and others have had and published, and there is no need to raise them again. An aspect of the fair that more than anything was a subject of criticism and, of course, of reflection was this: can the Tehran International Book Fair, in the true sense, as the Frankfurt Book Fair, London, and so on are, be called a book fair? Or is it no more than a store? Some regarded it as a book fair and believed that Iran's circumstances do not allow holding a fair like the Frankfurt Book Fair as the benchmark fair, and that holding the fair in this same manner is more suitable for Iran, and some regarded it as a point of objection and believed that it does not have a fitting standing as a fair and that fair functions are not observed in it.

One of the most important criticisms that experts raise went back to the fair's growth path and that over the past 32 years we have not witnessed much transformation, and when it was compared with large fairs such as the Frankfurt Book Fair, defenders of the method of holding the fair over the past 32 years insisted that the Frankfurt Book Fair too, like the Tehran International Book Fair at the start of its activity, was a large bazaar for selling books and over time found its standing as a fair in the true sense and today is the world's largest and most effective book fair. The turnover of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is held for five days, is equal to several years of turnover of Iran's book publishing market. A fair at which actors in publishing and books, journalists, writers, and also providers of printing and publishing services from around the world attend and have annual and long-term plans for their attendance. In truth, what has made the Frankfurt Book Fair the world's largest book fair is not the direct sale of books but the exchange of publication rights (copyright), the formation of collaborations between creators and publishers, the participation of literary agencies in offering content at the global level, agenda-setting in content production, and the preparation of legal and economic foundations in the book field.

In Iran, naturally, many of the foundations that would make possible holding a fair on the scale of the Frankfurt Book Fair do not exist. In such a situation, should we give up on holding a fair, in the true sense of the word? And content ourselves only with holding a large store, with the attendance of millions of people, unnecessary crowding and congestion, and the presence of food and snack vendors, or is it necessary that another measure be thought of so that the fair is held in a calm environment and a place for dialogue among actors in the publishing field and creators, in other words a place of reflection and thought.

 

Contents

• Editor's note
• The Tehran International Book Fair in the post-COVID period: in-person, virtual, or hybrid / Dariush Matlabi
• Analytical note
• The world of audio and video on the threshold of entering a new era / Mohammad Mehdi Asgarpour
• Cyberspace and changes in activism in the civilizational process / Mohammad Reza Bahmani
• Interview
• The cultural issue; hope for solidarity and identity-finding in the new order of Islamic-Iranian civilization, in conversation with Sajjad Saffar Harandi
• The cultural issue and its challenges in Iran, in conversation with Iraj Feyzi
• Article
• Twitter and journalism / Dhiraj Murthy, translated by Dr. Esmail Afghahi
• A review of the performance of provincial book fairs from the viewpoint of publishers, participants, experts, and organizers of provincial book fairs (1387–1396 (2008–2018)) / Salman Ansarizadeh, Ebrahim Heidari
• Public sociology versus the market / Michael Burawoy, translated by Bahman Bayengani
• A look at Savolainen's (ELIS) information-seeking model in the environmental context; an examination of concepts / Ahmad Shabani, Hossein Adabi Firouzjah
• An evaluation of the application of green library components in academic libraries / Fatemeh Rezaeimanesh, Mohsen Haji Zeinolabedini, Amir Reza Asnafi
• Session
• The pattern of consumption and cultural distribution of cinematic productions in the post-digital era
• Indifference, an inevitable choice
• Book review
• Social media war; equal weapons for all / Jalal Khoshchehreh
• New media: a critical introduction / Hossein Basirian Jahromi
• Slacktivist (the hashtag revolution): rules of cyber activism for slacktivists / Zeinab Qaderi
• The emergence of the national-character genre in Iran (an unintimate sociology) / Saeedeh Zadqanad
• Solutions for social problems / Esmail Gholamipour
• Do not follow the news / Omid Ali Masoudi
• New research: Sama Keshavarz Dizajini
• New books: Sama Keshavarz Dizajini