An unexpected message came to me recently on Messenger.
"I discovered 'The Burgas Affair' on the Internet. I work for the National Library
of Israel. We are obligated to collect every book published in Israel on behalf
of future generations, and to safeguard Israeli culture."
The
sender promised to send me additional details by mail and two weeks later an
email arrived.
Congratulations
on the publication of your book! We are honored to invite you to add it to the
National Library's book collection. For the past 125 years, we have been
collecting every book, newspaper, and other printed matter published in Israel.
This is done so that these materials will document written work and save it for
future generations. We invite you to add your book to the millions of items
already in our collection.
A
nice invitation? Actually, I am required by Israeli law to send my book to the National
Library.
As mentioned
this week in The Times of Israel, "In accordance with the 2000 'book law,'
any book published with more than 50 copies in the State of Israel must send
two copies to the National Library. This applies to books written in any
language, including translations."
One
copy of the book is made available to the general public, while the other is stored
in special conditions, preserving its availability to future generations.
According to that law, published books must be sent to the National Library within 30 days of their publication date. I just learned of the law's existence now and will be sending two copies of The Burgas Affair to the library. Readers in the future will thank me.
Photo by Hanan Cohen for the National Library of Israel.
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