KEMU to Host the National Book Week Celebrations
Kenya Methodist University has been selected by the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK) for the second year running to host the National Book Week celebration in the Mt Kenya region starting from 24th to 30th September, 2007. The Celebrations will be held at the College’s Main Campus, Meru. The University library, which is organizing the event, has invited Publishers and Booksellers to come and exhibit their new titles.
The occasion will see the participation of major publishers, booksellers, academicians, students and primary school pupils from various colleges who will have a chance to sample what publishers and booksellers have to offer from their latest catalogs.
According to the University librarian, Mr. Jafred Musisi, the event seeks to “underline the importance of the book as the most effective vehicle in the promotion of lifelong reading.” Mr Musisi, who is overseeing the success of the event, says that the event will also present a date for the college community, business community, schools, colleges and the local community to intermingle and have a one-on-one encounter with each other.
It is also during such events when readers can grab a copy of their favorite title at a discounted price.
Coming at a time when the publishers and booksellers community are smiling all the way to their banks thanks to the ready market from the free primary education program kitty coupled by the improved economy, the event will also serve to highlight the importance of the book as a tool of passing knowledge.
Kenya publishers are having bumper time in their sales since the introduction of free primary education and sees a great future if the promise of sustaining the program by incoming government come 2008 is anything to go by.
The future of scholarly and authorship is also brightened with the government factoring in its pledge to boost research (and publishing) by dedicating Sh200 million to setting up of research fund.
However the publishing industry is not without hiccups. Though the Kenyan Laws, through the Copyright Act 2001, do offer to protect the publishing world from chronic problems of illegal photocopying, piracy and plagiarism, the vice still continue to wreck havoc to the industry players.
Fortunately, campaigns have been advanced towards securing the interests of the players in publishing. One notable is effort to safeguard the interest of the author and publishers has been made by the Kopiken, the reproduction Rights Society of Kenya. In its campaign, this body has brought out the ills associated with illegal photocopying such as killing creativity, deriving the author and publishers their income and the illegality of photocopying material without paying for it. The body has made it a requirement for owners of photocopying machines to register with them and submit a fee to compensate the owners of the literally work.
Despite the technological revolution in the information-driven world, the traditional book still commands respect mostly subject to the inclined infrastructural development in the society. Thus, though there is a school of thought that casts doubt on the future of the traditional paper book format as the vehicle for transmission of knowledge, this format is still the darling of most knowledge seekers.
While Kenyans have been famed for their poor reading culture with exams being the only drive to reading, it is through such NBDCK, Kenya Methodist University Library and like-minded organization’s drives that Kenyans will become more enlightened and prove wrong the popular saying that, “If you want to hide something from Kenyans put it in the books”.
Geoffrey Mwendwa Benson
KEMU Library
