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World book and copyright day at KU
KARACHI, April 24(Dawn): The Department of Library and Information Sciences,
University of Karachi, organized a walk from the KU's Silver Jubilee Gate to the
department building on Monday to celebrate the World Book and Copyright
Day.
A sizable number of students and teachers participated in the
procession with banners inscribed with slogans calling for enhanced reading
habit.
When the procession reached the Administration Block, KU
Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui and several other senior
academicians joined in. The rally culminated at the Department of Library and
Information Sciences.
The department also organized a seminar where Dr
Jaffar Ahmed, Director of the Pakistan Studies Centre, shared his views with the
participants on how reading habit and friendship with books helped him
illuminate his intellect prowess. "I cannot imagine a life without reading
books," he said.
Prof Malahat Kaleem Sherwani, chairperson of the
department, shared the joy of reading books with the students and promised that
soon a collection of non-professional books would be developed for the
recreational reading.
The faculties and students of other departments
also participated and shared their views with the audience.
April 23 is a
symbolic date for world literature for on this day in 1616, Cervantes,
Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all breathed their last. It is also
the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon,
Haldor K. Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejํa
Vallejo.
It was a natural choice for Unesco's General Conference, held in
Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date,
encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure
of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of
those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.
In
this respect, UNESCO created both the World Book and Copyright Day and the
Unesco Prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of
Tolerance.
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