A five-day 19th five-day Annual book fair was kicked off on Monday at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad at its Main Library.
French Ambassador Martine Dorance along with UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan inaugurated.
Principal Officer Library Dr Muhammad Aslam along with Deans and Directors; French Higher Education Attaché Sebastien Cartier; Cooperation Attaché Olivier Huynh-Van and Philippe Garnier attended the inaugurations.
It consists of 30 stalls and a collection of more than 50,000 books offered at subsidised rates to the visitors. The fair comprises a vast range of printed material ranging from art to science; agriculture to engineering; literature to scientific books; as well as Islamic books. A large number of visitors thronged the UAF on the opening day to catch a glimpse of the books. Publishers from across the country and foreign are participating in it.
The public was also engrossed by classics of both Urdu and English literature. Technical manuals, dictionaries and books dealing with computer science, business management, and accounting were also available. Agricultural books giving the guideline about increasing productivity and modern methods became a source of attraction for the students of agricultural sciences. Martine Dorance termed book fair encouraging move towards boosting up reading habits among the people. She stressed upon the need to promote book reading.
Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan it was observed that youth are glued to their cells phone whereas the books reading habits were decreasing. He said the objective of the event was to promote book reading habit in society as well as provision of books at discount rates to book-lovers under one roof . He said the habit of reading books was very important not only for education and research but to develop one’s character and personality. He said the youth preferred using internet to get the information and trend of printed book reading was squeezing .