Prof Dr Nasim Fatima working on 2013 edition of Bazm-e-Akram's Adab-o-Kutub Khana

Pakistan News & Features Services

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, one of the living legends in the field of Library and Information Science, has started preparations for bringing out the 2013 edition of Bazm-e-Akram's Adab-o-Kutub Khana.

   

Bazm-e-Akram, a forum named after Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari, one of the founding fathers of the profession in the country, was founded in 1976 with Adil Usmani being its Founder President. 

Initially it was the labour of love of a few like-minded library scientists but Bazm-e-Akram has expanded gradually having nearly 60 members which include are Mohammad Wasil Usmani, Abdul Wahab Khan Saleem, Dr Rafia Ahmed Shaikh, Abdul Samad Ansari, Dr Rais Ahmed Samdani, Dr Mohammad Fazil Khan, Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, Dr Amna Khatoon, Dr Nargis Shagufta, Zainuddin Siddiqui, Syed Abad Ali, Dr Khadim Khams, Dr Shafqat Mokhari, Rafia Hasan Abidi, Sibte Haider Naseeri, Noor Amrohvi, Huma Mannan Butt, Nazia Mukhtar, Hina Naz, Syed Ahmed Naqvi, Azra Qureshi, Ikram-ul-Haq, Fatima Hasni Khayal, Dr Nigar Sajjad Zaheer, Dr Moinuddin Aqeel, Dr Mughees Ahmed, Dr Shama Aziz, Jamaluddin Akhtar, Syed Ateeb Ahmed, Aamir Subhani, Saima Qadeer, Farzana Abbas, Syeda Najma Sultana, Naheed Jahan, Nuzhat Bano Siddiqui, Abida Sultana, Dr Shamshad Ahmed and Noor Mustafa Khan. 

Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, a former Chairperson of the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Karachi, has been the livewire of the forum, having edited four publications of the series with Bazm-e-Akram 2012 having been published last January.

Susil Ranasinghe’s volleyball book launched in Colombo

Pakistan News & Features Services

The Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation has recently launched a book ntitled ‘Volleyball Then and Now’ which has been authored by Susil Ranasinghe, General Secretary of the federation. The launch took place at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo with many distinguished guests and past national players in attendance.

   

Although the book is written primarily for a Sinhalese speaking audience, the chapter discussing international volleyball is in English. The picture captions in the book have also been translated into English where possible. The book will be distributed to schools and libraries free of charge. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister, Mahidananda Aluthgamage, remarked that volleyball was a good example of a sport that has taken hold at the grassroots level and in the villages. 

Noting the responsibility of the federation to popularise the game and bring it up to international standards, Alithgamage said, “We must try hard to create a generation of sport loving people in Sri Lanka in the future.”  

Dilan Perera, President of the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation, praised the author, recognizing that volleyball has progressed so much through the dedicated work done by Susil Ranasinghe. 

Sri Lanka has experienced an expansion in the popularity of the game over the past years, with the number of participating teams in the tournaments having increased to over 5,000. 

Following the book launch there was also a ceremony where the veteran volleyball players who took part in the South Asian Games from 1950 to 1991 were presented with trophies to commemorate their service to the country.

Lahore Literary Festival makes a sensational start

Pakistan News & Features Services

Lahore has been the cultural capital of Pakistan and the city created another sensation by hosting the first-ever Lahore Literary Festival which was inaugurated by the Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, at Alhamra, The Mall, on February 22.  

The highlight of the ceremony was the lifetime achievements awards presented to three icons of literature, Intizar Husain, Bapsi Sidhwa and Zehrah Nigah, who also recited her famous poem on the occasion. 

The Chief Minister, in his speech, fondly recalled the Lahore of 1950s and 1960s when the families, including Parsis and Christians, strolled for hours. Upon the request of the organizers for greater government-private initiative partnership in aid of culture, Shahbaz Sharif announced to set up a fund for writers, pledging to form committee for the purpose soon. 

He welcomed the grand assembly of eminent writers, poets, scholars and journalists, complimenting the organizers for doing a fabulous job by putting it efforts to turn the dream of holding Lahore Literary Festival into reality. 

The passion, patriotism and love for the country, Lahore exuded by not just literary delights but the ever-enthusiastic crowd made the festival an instant success.

Rhetoric of Freedom wins Cairo International Book Fair prize

Pakistan News & Features Services

Emad Abdel Latif’s book Balaghat Al-Horeyya (Rhetoric of Freedom) was declared the best book in the human sciences field during the recently held 44th Cairo International Book Fair 2013 in the Egyptian capital.  

This year's Cairo International Book Fair prizes were announced at the closing ceremony of the fair’s cultural programme. The prizes, each worth US$ 1,490 were awarded to works published in 2012 in 10 different fields namely political books, novels, short stories, poetry, slang poetry, arts, science, human sciences, heritage, and children's books. 

The judging panel included writer and novelist Gamal El-Ghitani, novelist Youssef El-Qaeed, critic Mohammed Badawy and historian Ahmed Zakaria El-Shalq. Best book in human sciences prize went to Emad Abdel Latif for his book Balaghat Al-Horeyya (Rhetoric of Freedom), released by Tanweer Publishing House. 

The book was discussed during the book fair in the presences of its author Abdel Latif, Nabil Abdel-Fattah, Head Researcher at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, and Professor Ammar Ali Hassan, writer and political sociologist, as part of the cultural programme. 

The book analyses the political discourse surrounding the revolution. The first strategy he used he titled the section Discourse of the Squares. 

He has reproduced the slogans, banners, pictures and symbols used throughout the demonstrations across the country, focusing on those most frequently seen. His analysis wasn’t limited to squares in the physical sense, but also expanded the idea of a revolutionary meeting space to the internet, looking at the discourse across Facebook pages and other social networking websites.

Celebrities attend launch of Anuradha Sawhney's book The Vegan Kitchen: Bollywood Style

Pakistan News & Features Services

Bollywood celebrities and socialites attended the launch of Anuradha Sawhney's book 'The Vegan Kitchen: Bollywood Style' in Mumbai recently.  

Renowned actors Gulshan Grover, actress Mahima Chaudhary, Sherlyn Chopra, Anju Mahendroo, Yaana Gupta, model Dipannita Sharma, Achal Sachdev, designer Anita Dongre, dancer Sandeep Soparrkar and Poonam Sinha were among those present in what turned out to be a glittering ceremony. 

The book, published by Westland Limited, brings together the favourite recipes from about 50 leading names from the world of Bollywood, fashion and music. 

"It has a lot of recipes done by a lot of celebrities and I am one of them. I have contributed one recipe and one little story," actor Yaana Gupta remarked. 

Anupam Kher, Dilip Kumar, Gulshan Grover, Hema Malini, John Abraham, Mahesh Bhatt, Om Puri, R. Madhavan, Rahul Khanna, Saira Banu, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonam Kapoor and Vidya Balan are among those having contributed their favourite recipes for the book, showing how it’s possible to incorporate a delicious, healthy vegan diet with no cholesterol in other words, one with no animal products, including dairy into life. 

With appetizing photographs and tips on how to run a vegan kitchen ensure that it will find a place on any shelf. With forewords from two internationally-renowned doctors and a leading fitness expert who explain how a nutritious vegan diet can help reverse heart disease, manage diabetes and reduce obesity, as well as promote fitness, this book is the perfect marriage of taste, glamour and health in vegan style.

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.