Special Year of Languages exhibit held in Lobby of UN House in Yerevan, Armenia on 15 April 2008

On 15 April 2008, the UN Department of Public Information launched in the lobby of the UN House in Yerevan, Armenia, an exhibition of its locally produced 1996-2007 publications in the Armenian Language. During the years 1996-2007, more than 90 books, bulletins, booklets, posters and calendars were published with an overall print run of 100,000. The title chosen for this exhibition was the slogan of the International Year of Languages: “Languages Matter”.

The exhibition remained open to visitors until the end of April. Several of these printed materials as well as some received from UNHQ were made available for free to anyone interested in having a copy. During these two weeks, visitors of this exhibition included local librarians, students from several universities, high-school students from various regions of Armenia, and representatives of non-governmental organizations.

The exhibition was organized within the framework of “Armenian Library Week”, a 2001 initiative. Since then, every year a week in April is designated as Armenian Library Week. From the first year, UN DPI and the UN Reference Library take an active part in the events that are organized. UN DPI has also hosted the members of the Armenian Library Information System network in the UN Reference Library and initiated a permanent collaboration with the network.

This year, the Armenian Library Week took place from 14 to 21 April. UN Reference Library was again on the list of participants. As part of the scheduled events and activities, April 15 was mentioned as Mother Language Day, a national initiative distinct from 21 February which is International Mother Language Day.

It is estimated that more than 50% of some 6,700 languages spoken in the world are threatened with extinction and on the average of every two weeks a language ceases to be spoken. According to experts, 96% of languages are spoken by only 4% of the population. And it means: “When languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity”.