Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 14 2008:
THE IMPHAL Book Fair, state biggest book fair which come once in a year organized by the state Central Library under the department of arts and culture in collaboration with Raja Ram Mohon Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata, will kick-off here at Hapta Kangjeibung from tomorrow (December 15) .
The organizers have appealed all concerns not to call or impose bandh, blockade etc.
during the fairs.
The 17th fair will be participated by 21 book farms including 16 from outside the state.
Books will be available at a discount of 10 percent from the original print prizes.
The book fair aims at culturing the habit of reading books to the people by intensifying library movement in the state, encouraging the publishers in producing books etc.
said the chief librarian H Debendro of the state Central Library today.
As a part of the fair, an interaction programme of the writers will be held on December 23, he said.
Meanwhile, Manipur Library Association has expressed concern over the condition of the library movement in the state when the world enters into digital library with the advancing of the movement in other parts of the globe.
The association, feeling pity with the state of library movement in the state, in a statement today said that due to improper installation of libraries in the schools and higher secondary schools, the habit of reading books to the students could not be cultured upto the expected level.
Authorities also failed to provide latest books to read in the colleges, it added.
In the public library and central library too, there is no books suited with time apart from not providing separate facilities to people living with disabilities, aged old people and blindness.
District level libraries also have no adequate staffs even though there are library buildings, it lamented.