Book fairs are constantly changing and adapting to social conditions, and in 2020 they were forced to make several changes due to the epidemic. In this research, we analyzed book fairs before the global pandemic (2017, 2018 and 2019) and book fairs that took place during the pandemic (2020 and 2021). The focus was on the analysis of the Slovenian Book Fair, and we also analyzed the Frankfurt Book Fair and the London Book Fair. We were interested in the changes in the organization of Slovenian and international book fairs, how digitization has affected the fairs, and in which direction the fairs will develop in the future. We used the method of historical research, as we searched for data on past events. The main conclusion of the research is that due to the epidemic, fairs were moved online, where they were held for a longer time than live fairs before the epidemic, and were more easily accessible to a larger number of people. The Frankfurt Book Fair was the only one that already took place in a hybrid format in 2021, and as trends show, the other fairs will also adopt a hybrid format. Currently, we cannot say for sure which changes will be preserved, but this thesis can serve as a basis for further research.
|