NLA, KU to organize seminar on books

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The National Library Association (NLA) and the University of Karachi’s Library & Information Science department will be organizing a seminar titled ‘Books are Forever’ next month, it was decided in their joint meeting held at the campus on January 17. 

The NLA was represented in the meeting by its Advisor, Syed Khalid Mahmood, President, Syed Muzaffar Ali Shah, Senior Vice President, Munazza Abidi, Secretary General, Anwar Hussain, Treasurer, Nasir Nayab, and Joint Secretary, Hira Yaseen, while the university’s Library & Information Science department contingent comprised of its chairperson, Prof Dr Farhat Hussain Khan and the faculty members Dr Rafat Parveen Siddiqui (Assistant Professor), Dr Naveed-e-Sahar (Assistant Professor), Dr Waseem Zia (Assistant Professor) and Rashid Ali (Lecturer). 

It was mutually agreed that the seminar will either be held on February 17 or February 22, depending on the availability of the university’s auditorium which possessed a seating capacity for more than 400 persons. 

The session, presided over jointly by Syed Khalid Mahmood and Prof Dr Farhat Hussain, noted that it was the right time to start engaging the departmental students into such gripping activities as the new semester had just started and the fever of the Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF) was still on. 

The NLA office-bearers as well as the KU faculty firmly shared the vision that books held great future, irrespective of the medium or the format it may be read with. 

“E-books in digital format are being read and followed as passionately as the conventional books in print form these days. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the books are here to stay, braving all challenges and silencing all critics or rumours,” they asserted. 

The teachers of the Karachi University’s Library & Information Science department were well and truly satisfied with the motivation level of their students. 

“They enter here to learn and we provide them an environment where passion for books could grow. As a result all of them develop the tendencies and skills which come handy in their professional life,” the learned teachers remarked. 

The university’s Library & Information Science department seems heading towards further glories under the leadership of their new chairperson, Prof Dr Farhat Hussain, who has had a record of doing things on fast track.