More than 40,000 books have been displayed at the book fair in Bahauddin Zakariya University. The fair began on Monday and will continue till Thursday.
More than 30 publishers and dealers have set up their stalls.
Chief Librarian Muhammad Abdul Majeed told The Express Tribune that more than 10,000 people had visited the library every day since the fair began. This, he said, included students, guests and staff.
“The turn over has been way more than what we had expected.”Majeed said all book were being sold at 20-30 per cent concession.
The fair has been organised at the Central Library, the university’s biggest and oldest.
Books on more than 50 subjects have been displayed, but according to Muhammad Khaliq at the Oxford Books stall, those on social sciences are most popular among students.
Mirza Ijaz Bashir, the university’s public relation officer, told The Express Tribune that the book fair had been organised at a larger scale this year and with a different pattern.
He said teams of three to four students each had been constituted to guide visitors. Another team had been helping them to get exact location of the books.
“Things are more precise and organised this year,” Bashir said.
He said the university had advertised the book fair and invited outsides, former students and book lovers though the university website, invitation cards and banners placed next to the campus.
The students said they found the pricing reasonable.
The book fair remains open till 9pm every day.
Students said the timings suited most of them since not everyone could visit the book fair early in the morning due to classes.
Vice Chancellor Dr Khwaja Alqama visited the book fair and appreciated the efforts of the administration, students and book sellers.
Talking to The Express Tribune, he said he planned to convince the publishers to offer 50 per cent discount for students next year. The university would also subsidise some books, he said.
“We need to bring back the time when books were the asset the students tried to acquire. I want students to read and research independently rather than depending on shared notes.”
BZU Registrar Malik Munir Hussain also visited the book fair.
Commenting on the 10,000 average visitors daily so far, he said, it was for the first time that a university book fair had drawn such large number of visitors.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2013.