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About the Library
LEGAL DEPOSIT DEPARTMENT
Israeli Book Statistics for 2006
New Titles and Current Periodicals
Hebrew and Other Languages
Children Books and Text Books
Type of Publishing
Sectors
Israeli Publishers
Statistics from previous years
The Hebrew Book Week 2007 will take place in Israel on June 6-16.
In anticipation of this event the Jewish
National and University Library (JNUL) has collated data about books
published in Israel during 2006. The JNUL is the legal deposit library of
Israel, and receives, according to the “Book Act”, two copies of each book,
journal, cassette or disk published in Israel. The publications are catalogued
in the
JNUL
catalogue, in the Israel national bibliography and in the
Israel Union List.
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New Titles and Current Periodicals
During 2006, 8,680 new Israeli titles were registered by the Legal
Deposit Department of the JNUL: 6,866 books, 1,141 new
periodicals, and 673 non-print titles, such as CDs and cassettes. In
addition, 14,015 issues of current periodicals were received in the JNUL.
Although not covered by Legal Deposit, the Library also received 1,554
masters’ theses and 934 doctoral theses.
The JNUL catalogue is the most comprehensive in Israel, and includes the vast
majority of the titles published in Israel.
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Hebrew and Other Languages
Most of the books are in Hebrew: 5,900 titles. The next common languages
are English: 528 titles, and Russian: 196 titles. This year 133
new Arabic titles were recorded, constituting a 33% increase compared to
the previous year.
The rise in the number of Arabic books deposited is due to strengthening ties
between the National Library and Arabic language publishers. The National
Library assumes that the number of Arabic titles published in Israel is greater
than that is recorded by the Library, and will continue to make an effort in the
coming years to locate and record them.
38 French titles were published in Israel last year, 26 in Spanish
and 16 in Romanian.
13 publications in various Jewish languages were received: 10 in Yiddish,
2 in Judeo-Tajikic (the language of Bukharan Jewry) and one in the Tat
language of the Caucasian immigrants.
A few books were published in other languages, such as German, Dutch, Polish and
Italian.
Most of the Hebrew books, about 88% were originally written in Hebrew,
and about 12% were translated into Hebrew.
The breakdown of the 6,866 books is as follows:
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Children Books and Text Books
About 484 books for children and youth were deposited in the library – about
7% of the total number of books received.
In addition, 203 text books were deposited – about 3% of the total number of books received.
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Type of Publishing
51% of the books were published by commercial publishing houses.
9% of the books were published by the government and governmental institutions.
5% of the books were published by educational institutions – universities, colleges and schools.
18% of the books were published by associations, foundations, museums, community centers and other organizations.
17% of the books were self-published by authors.
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Sectors
The orthodox and ultra-orthodox sector was responsible for 24% of the total titles that were published in Israel in
2006.
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Israeli Publishers
The Jewish National and University Library's
Legal Deposit Department maintains an extensive listing of
Israeli
publishers, including many minor publishers who issue only a few
books a year. The information includes address, telephone, and fax
number of each publisher. The database contains 1,452 active
publishers and organizations, which engage in publishing.
966 are commercial publishing houses, and 486 are
non-commercial.
497 publishers published for the orthodox sector, and 6
for non-Jewish religious communities.
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English was the main language for 35 publishers, while 325
publishers published in English as well as Hebrew. 19 publishers
published mainly in Russian, and 45 publishers published in Russian
besides Hebrew. 18 publishers published mainly in Arabic, and 33
published in Arabic in addition to Hebrew or other languages.
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