The National Book Council is a public entity that caters for the Maltese book industry with several important services whilst striving to encourage reading and promote the book as a medium of communication in all its formats. It represents writers and publishers in public fora and institutions in order to promote the interests of the book industry’s stakeholders, organises the Malta Book Festival and the National Book Prize amongst other national as well as smaller scale events, administers Public Lending Rights, organises several literary contests and is also the local agent for ISBN and ISMN.

The National Book Council’s markedly cultural mindset and multimedia approach enables it to work with different partners to achieve its goals. As an entity, it falls under the remit of the Ministry of Education and Employment and has always been considered as part and parcel of the public educational infrastructure. Malta Libraries, which is the public entity responsible for all public libraries including the National Library, is a separate and distinguished entity, which works in close collaboration with the National Book Council.

Subsidiary Legislation 327.580 establishing the National Book Council can be found here.

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