Foreign publishers attract greater attention in Lahore International Book Fair 2013

Pakistan News & Features Services

The 27th edition of the Lahore International Book Fair, held at the Expo Centre in Lahore from February 14 to 18, witnessed greater activity at the stalls of the foreign publishers who remained the centre of attention for the visitors, particularly students.

According to the organizers, Lahore International Book Fair Trust (LIBFT), the total number of visitors crossed the figure of 700,000 this year and there were more than 350 stalls occupied by the foreign and local participants. 

Large number of visitors expressed interest in around 20 pavilions of Indian publishers, including Jaypee Brothers Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Pearson Education Publishers, Wolters Kluwer, NCBA Exports, S K Kataria, Manas Publications, Sunrise Publishers, AITBS Publishers, Asian Education Services, Khel Sahitya Kendra, Cambridge University Press India, Springer India, Vishv Books, Kalyan Publishers, Random Publishers and Sage Publishers. 

The cultural, educational and religious books, besides Urdu translations of Turkish books at the stall of Harmony Publications also attracted a big number of bookworms. 

There were considerable movement also at the stalls of John Waley from the UK, Jones and Bartlett from the US, Elsvier Health Sciences, India, the US and the UK and al Ghurair Publications from Dubai. 

BBC and German broadcaster DW had also put up their stalls to promote their Urdu websites while eminent journalists and authors interacted with people at these stands. 

Some of the stalls set up by the local publishers like Paramount Publishing Enterprise, Liberty Books, Oxford University Press, Readings, Liberty Books, Khalid Book, Dogar Publishers and Afaq Publications also drew substantial number of people. 

Among the subjects, the books on religion, science, history, philosophy, technology and languages were more popular than others.

Lahore International Book Fair 2013 considered moderate success

Pakistan News & Features Services

The recently concluded 27th edition of the Lahore International Book Fair, staged at the Expo Centre in Lahore from February 14 to 18, has been described as a moderately successful event.

   

A large number of people, including students, teachers and professionals, visited the five-day event organized by the Lahore International Book Fair Trust (LIBFT) but the stallholders felt that the event drew smaller crowd than the previous years. 

“People have shown their interest in Indian books, but the number of visitors is lower than the past years,” Random Publication India’s Export Manager, P N Kala, was quoted as saying. 

He added that globalisation had changed people’s interest and now people preferred collecting information from the internet rather than books. He, however, reckoned that a huge crowd of real book lovers still existed, who read books on the internet besides keeping its hard copy. 

Naveen Saini of Macmillan Publishers India also felt that the number of visitors in the LIBF 2013 were on the lower side. 

One of the reasons of the smaller turnout was believed to be the non-participation of the Punjab Textbook Board. “Last year, as many as 50,000 children from schools came and liked the activities organised in partnership with the PTB,” Zubair Saeed, Chairman, LIBFT, conceded.

Lahore International Book Fair moves from Fortress Stadium to Expo Centre

Pakistan News & Features Services

The 27th edition of the recently concluded Lahore International Book Fair, having the theme ‘Education for All and Books for Peace’ grew in size with the shifting of the venue from Fortress Stadium to Expo Centre.

   

Zubair Saeed, Chairman of the Lahore International Book Fair Trust (LIBFT), disclosed that the change in venue of the fair had required a big investment and it had finally paid off. 

“It was cheaper to organise the event at Fortress Stadium but the new venue had brought serious book-lovers to the fair,” he stated. 

“We have almost 350 exhibitors this year up as compared to 220 last year and we are very excited about it. We are delighted to have facilitated the bookworms,” the LIBFT chief remarked. 

“It is better organised and more structured now as everything is clearly marked which is greatly appreciated,” Uzair Iqbal of the Readings acknowledged. 

“We have set up 32 bookstalls this year whereas we had 27 last year. We have one of the largest displays,” he added.

Shobhaa De, Gulzar skip Karachi Literature Festival 2013

Pakistan News & Features Services

The Karachi Literature Festival 2013, held at Hotel Beach Luxury from February 15 to 17, missed the famed Indian trio of Shobhaa De, Gulzar and Vishal Bharadwaj who were reported to have changed their mind at the eleventh hour.

 

While the famous poet Gulzar and film director Vishal Bhardwaj didn’t come to Karachi, even after having landed in Lahore, the versatile author Shobhaa De cancelled her visit to Pakistan altogether, stating that her visa was issued too late. 

The Mumbai-born novelist had tweeted from her own account that the delay in her visa was the main cause for her decision. Though, she gave into some conspiracy talk speculating whether the visa was deliberately delayed. 

 “Pakistani visa was too late! Gulzar had his reasons for not attending the KLF. I was so looking forward to it. Someone didn’t want me there?” she added. 

Shobhaa De, it may be recalled, had attended the Karachi Literature Festival last year and was deemed as one of the major attractions of the event. She was delighted to have a massive fan following in Pakistan too. 

Her absence plus those of Gulzar and Bharadwaj, which was not unexpected in view of the prevailing circumstances, did take some gloss away from the fourth edition of the Karachi Literature Festival.

Pakistan Academy of Letters acknowledge ‘Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan’ as breakthrough publication

Pakistan News & Features Services 

The Pakistan Academy of Letters has acknowledged Prof Dr Nasim Fatima’s recently published ‘Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan 1947-2012’ as a breakthrough publication. 

“I think the initiatives taken by Prof Dr Nasim Fatima will yield better results in the field of bibliographical studies and her potential could further improve the quality of research performance of students and teachers of Library & Information Science. It’s a great breakthrough in the field,” Agha Noor Mohammad Pathan, Resident Director, Pakistan Academy of Letters, Sindh, recognized.

 

“Prof Dr Nasim Fatima is a pioneer in the field of bibliographical heritage of Pakistan. She has done a monumental work in library automation and management programmes. She has developed and explored new courses and revised the curriculum besides adding the use of information technology in the libraries of Sindh,” he complimented. 

“She prepared a manual for library software engineers in 2006. Her research work on Urdu literature and children libraries are highly research-oriented. She has compiled and edited archives of Sindh and prepared useful finding aids for the researchers,” Agha Noor Mohammad Pathan added. 

“As a result of the revision of curriculum by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), web bibliography has been introduced and many websites are available. In this book she has made an effort to make bridge between research scholars and the records of researches already done. She has preserved the past for the present and future studies,” he concluded.

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima’s 'Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan' hailed

Pakistan News & Features Services 

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima’s recently published ‘Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan 1947-2012’ has been hailed as another outstanding publication put together by one of the most respected library scientists of the country. 

“One will understand how honoured and delighted I was, when a highly regarded personality asked me to write a preface for her book,” Dr Rubina Bhatti, Chairperson, Department of Library & Information Science, Bahawalpur, wrote. 

“The present work is an excellent attempt to explore the most exciting bibliographical heritage of Pakistan. This theme has assumed great significance in western countries. The dearth of this type of works by the Pakistani authors, however, is known to all,” she pointed out. 

“Prof Dr Nasim Fatima covers all the subjects of general works, philosophy, religions, social sciences, languages, pure and applied sciences, fine arts, literatures, histories, biographies and bio-bibliographic,” Dr Rubina Bhatti observed. 

“This work is a significant addition to the field. It is a worthy book, with compact presentation of subjects in simple language. This is a very valuable, interesting and thought-provoking compilation,” she concluded.

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima’s 'Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan' published

Pakistan News & Features Services

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima’s recently published ‘Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan 1947-2012’ has been described as the culmination of all previous work on the subject as it serves the purpose of updating on the historical and chronological development of bibliographical works since the creation of Pakistan. 

Compiled by Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, a former Chairperson of the Library & Information Science Department at the University of Karachi, the 334-page hardbound ‘Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan 1947-2012’ has been brought out by the Library Promotion Bureau with the collaboration of the Idara Kitabyat-e-Pakistan. 

A copy of the book costs Rs 450 in Pakistan while it’s price outside of Pakistan has been kept at US$50. It is available with Fazlee Book Supermarket, housed in Urdu Bazar of Karachi. 

‘Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan 1947-2012’ is the latest feather in the cap of Prof Dr Nasim Fatima who has been acclaimed as one of the leading library scientists of the country besides being a prolific writer, bibliographer and archivist. 

She has dedicated her latest compilation to her teachers, Dr Jameel Jalibi, and Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari. 

Prof Dr Rafia Shaikh, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, has contributed the foreword to the book in which she has recognized Prof Dr Nasim Fatima’s excellence while handling numerical data. 

“She lucidly explains how many and how much. Her treatment of bibliographical entries is errorless. Her qualitative data with respect to definitions and types of bibliographies is remarkable,” Prof Dr Rafia Shaikh noted. 

“This book will serve as reference text book for students, as an aide for teaching faculty members and as a guide for research scholars,” she added while recommending ‘Bibliographical Heritage of Pakistan 1947-2012’ without reserve.