(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- Bibliophiles now have the option to find out if the titles they desire are available at the 24th Muscat International Book Fair without visiting the venue.
In a first-of-its-kind facility, organisers of the book fair have listed all the 523,000 titles available online for those interested to check for availability before deciding to visit the venue. Yousef bin Ibrahim al Balushi, an official in the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and director of Muscat International Book Fair, said, 'We have made it easier this time for book lovers who throng the fair. More than 523,000 titles from 30 countries are available in this edition of the fair.
'If you wish to know whether your favourite authors or books are available, you can check the website of the book fair (https://www.mctbookfair.gov.om/en/search-individual/). We have put the entire list of titles online.'
The book fair is a ten-day event starting on Thursday where writers will interact with visitors.
'With this facility, one can look for specific books and authors as well as scroll through all that is available at the fair. Not just that, it has information on the location of the stall at the venue where it is available and the price. So visitors can go prepared. They just pay and get their book. There is a big crowd at the fair; we try and make things easier for visitors and book lovers. This is one such attempt.'
The book fair includes cultural programmes, children's activities and an array of customised corners for community initiatives.
The fair will be open from 10am to 10pm, running every day till March 2. On Fridays, it will remain open from 4pm to 10pm. Some days are allocated for students - February 21, 25 and 27 are allotted for male school children from 10am to 2pm; female school students can visit on February 24, 26 and 28 from 10am to 2pm.
A total of 122 bookstores and publishing houses from the sultanate are participating, 154 from Egypt, 81 from Lebanon, 74 from Syria, 49 from Jordan, 42 from UAE, 32 from Kuwait, 19 from Saudi Arabia, six from UK, five from Qatar, four from Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey and Bulgaria, three from Bahrain, Iran and Morocco, and two from Palestine and China each. Italy, Libya, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Brunei, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be represented by one publishing house each.
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