UUM Book Festival And Appreciation Ceremony Set To Nurture The Culture Of Reading
The UUM Book Festival and 2019 UUM Press Appreciation Ceremony are deemed as means to nurture the reading culture amongst the campus community and the surrounding community.
According to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani, this year the event was carried out in a more relaxed manner as it involved student leaders through the UUM Student Representative Council (MPP). The UUM MPP would play active role in organizing university programmes and activities in the coming months.
"Book review competitions can enhance students' confidence in introducing new ideas besides creating Laureate Corner and Waqf.
"We also want to see more academics writing books and if there are students who are interested in writing books, we greatly encourage and are very supportive of it," he said when launching the UUM Book Festival & 2019 UUM Press Appreciation Ceremony at the Foyer of the Sultanah Bahiyah Library.
Aptly themed, The Reading Society is the Aspiration of the Nation, the UUM Book Festival was jointly organized by UUM Press, Sultanah Bahiyah Library, Student Affairs Department and UUM MPP.
The Vice-Chancellor said that reading culture should not be restricted to university students only, but should also be extended to the whole community.
"I hope that in the future, more people will attend to brighten up the festival including schoolchildren and teachers," he said. The Vice-Chancellor also launched the 2019 UUM Book Festival, Digital Reading campaign & Read @ Uni.
At the same event, the Vice-Chancellor also presented prizes to award winners namely the Highest Book Royalty Award 2018, Author with the Most Books Written Award, Most Hopeful Author Award, School with the most publication with UUM Press Award, Textbook Royalty Award and Active Department Partner Award.
Meanwhile, the Director of UUM Press Assoc. Pof. Dr. Ram Al Jaffri Saad said UUM Press recognized the efforts and support given by writers and schools in making academic writing and publication agenda a success.
He said the Appreciation Ceremony was held to show appreciation towards the work done by writers, staff and schools behind the success that UUM Press has gained through publication.
"We look forward to the government's support in the context of providing book vouchers that are very important to students to purchase books in order to cultivate and practice reading habits among the public.
"I believe the unwavering support will bring this programme in tandem with the recognition of Kuala Lumpur as the World Book Capital 2020 in nurturing the reading culture," he said.
The festival, which began from 24th to 28th February, saw 23 exhibitors comprising publishers and book distributors from within and outside the country such as Media Publishers Karangkraf Group, University Publisher (UUM, USM, UPSI, UKM, UPM, USIM, UM, UteM, UMS & Uniza), National Book Translation Institute (ITBM) and the Booksline Service (Cengage, Pearson & Elsevier).
In addition, the Kamza Library (Taylor & Francis, Lexis & Nexis, Sweet & Maxwell), UUM Cooperative (McGraw & Oxford), Nijuyon (Sage), Refined Contour (World Scientific), Ashe (John Wiley & Harvard, MIT & IGI) and Rimbunan Ilmu also participated in the exhibition and sale at this festival.
There were also various interesting events including Book Review, Book Sales and Exhibition, Speaker's Corner, Blood Donation Campaign, Script Writing and Telemovie Workshop (MF Kencana), and Kindergarten Colouring and Musical Chair Contest.