This\nweek witnesses the 38th edition of Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair (KLIBF),\nheld for ten days from 29th of March until 7th of April 2019, at the Putra\nWorld Trade Centre (PWTC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hashtag #MalaysiaMembaca is used, to excite reading as the favourite pastime of Malaysians. It is a tall order, facing the challenges of internet surfing and binge-watching, allured with the rise of video streaming services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, on the 23rd of April, World Book Day will be celebrated globally.\nDesignated by UNESCO since 1995, it is an annual world-wide tribute to books,\nparticipated by more than a hundred countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is inspired by the Catalonian custom el dia del llibre<\/em>, a\nfestival when lovers and their beloved exchange books as gift. On that\nparticular day alone, approximately 1.8 million books worth around \u20ac 25 million\n(RM 116 million) are expected to be sold. Those numbers are impressive, as\nCatalonia\u2019s population hovers at less than 8 million people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As book encapsulates its author\u2019s thought, World Book Day is also an\nappreciation of authors. Good writers have furthered the social advancement and\ncultural progress of humanity, be it in spiritual terms or economics, politics,\neducation, ethics, law, sciences, mathematics, comparative religion,\nphilosophy, and literature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, the 23rd of April was picked because it marks the anniversary of\nthe date of death of many eminent Western writers such as Miguel de Cervantes\nand William Shakespeare; the date also marks the birth of Nobel laureate Halld\u00f3r\nLaxness and Vladimir Nabokov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA chief glory of every people arises from its authors,\u201d as mentioned by\nDr Samuel Johnson, arguably the most distinguished litterateur in English\nhistory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Against those who abhor books, Voltaire once remarked that \u201cthe whole of\nthe known universe, with the exception of the savage races, is governed by\nbooks alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Voltaire\u2019s remark was not without exaggeration; but he marshalled many\nwitty examples to illustrate it. This 18th century French Enlightenment\nessayist pointed out that the Islamic civilisation is governed by the Qur\u2019an<\/em>,\nthe Chinese civilisation by the Analects<\/em>, the Hindu civilisation by the\nVedas<\/em>, and the pre-Islamic Persia by the Avesta<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In saying the Qur\u2019an has governed Islamic civilisation, it is rooted on the\nfirst Divine Order to the Prophet Muhammad, which is to \u201cRead! (Iqra\u2019<\/em>).\nThe new Religion (al-Din<\/em>) is mandated to be based on the harmony of\nRevelation with intelligence, perusal, thorough study, profound thinking, in-depth\ninvestigation, honest research, and exploration on significant human issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such a learning culture gave birth to the leading scientists and\ninnovators of their time. Muslim civilisation can proudly name hundreds of\nthinkers and discoverers among its famous sons and daughters, including al-Khwarizmi,\na geographer and mathematician, from whose name the word \u2018algorithm\u2019 comes;\nal-Biruni, a pharmacy, medicine, physics and earth science scholar; and,\nal-Ghazali, arguably the greatest theologian Islam has produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At national level, there is room for governmental improvement by looking\nat model library such as the National Diet Library (NDL) of Tokyo and Kyoto,\nJapan, as well as the Library of Congress, Washington DC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NDL boasts of numerous significant Japan\u2019s special collections; while the\nLibrary of Congress has more than 32 million book collections and 61 million\nmanuscripts. They function as world-wide resource centres, referred to by\nthought leaders to the extent that it is able to be a \u201clibrary\nof last resort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The phrase \u201clibrary of last resort\u201d was coined by Herbert Putnam, the Librarian\nof Congress from 1899 to 1939. In an administrative measure worth emulating, the\nappointment of Librarian of Congress always taking into account that it is the\nleading intellectual public position in the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the government establish in that mould\u2014say, Putrajaya Library<\/em>\u2014benchmarked\nagainst the standard of the aforementioned educational institutions, this will\nsurely add value to our federal administrative centre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not unlike those two international libraries, it ought to function as research\narm, especially for the needs of the members of Parliament of Malaysia, which\nconsists of Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara, as well as the office of The Yang\ndi-Pertuan Agong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be able to perform \u201cLegislative and Syari\u2018ah Reference Service,\u201d\nsupplying research-based scholarly answer to the needs of members of Parliament\nand of State Legislative Assemblies, on national matters in general as well as\non civil and syari\u2018ah systems of law. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ultimate vision may be to\nposition it as the greatest library or resource centre for the Malay Archipelago,\nwhich is the second largest populated region in the Islamic World. It may later\nestablish a system of library classification congenial to Malay-Islamic World\nbooks, parallel to present-day Library of Congress Classification<\/em> (LCC)\nand Dewey decimal system<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Collections of rare books, and valuable and important manuscripts could be obtained by establishing proper acquisition centres, manned by experts, in foreign countries; a dedicated diplomatic initiatives (say, Library of Putrajaya Missions<\/em>) may be formed, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from printed books, materials like microfilms, maps, fine arts,\nand architectural drawings are relevant to the purpose;\nand in this Information Age, they need to be archived in digital forms, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week witnesses the 38th edition of Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair (KLIBF), held for ten days from 29th of March until 7th of April 2019, at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC). The hashtag #MalaysiaMembaca is used, to excite reading as the favourite pastime of Malaysians. It is a tall …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}