University Presses Showcase Academic Publications at Taipei Book Fair2017-05-23
University Presses Showcase Academic Publications at Taipei Book Fair
NTU Press once again teamed up with an alliance of university publishing houses to hold the Joint Exhibition of National University Presses for the six days of the Taipei International Book Exhibition during February 8 to 12. Returning in an expanded fifth annual incarnation, the joint exhibition posed the question "Why Are We Academic?" as its theme this year, seeking to reconsider the essence and spirit of scholarship as well as discuss approaches capable of highlighting the significance of academic research findings and giving them a vital role in providing solutions to the issues impacting society.
Returning for the joint exhibition's opening ceremony, NTU President Pan-Chyr Yang said he had yet to miss the opening ceremony and that he has always maintained confidence and hope in Taiwan's academic publishers. President Yang noted that, since Taiwan publishes academic material using traditional Chinese characters, it enjoys an ease of convergence with the traditional culture of the more than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, adding that, although simplified characters are the main form of written Chinese internationally, traditional characters remain irreplaceably important.
President Yang also suggested that the university publishers consider studying the model used overseas in which a number of university publishers form an alliance for the establishment of one publisher that integrates the area specializations of each institution, noting that this approach would help boost international visibility.
The organizers expanded the scope of the exhibition to include an overseas publisher for the first time this year, with the Association of Japanese University Presses accepting an invitation present the cream of its academic publications. The Japanese publications were displayed as an "exhibition within an exhibition" alongside the Taiwanese publications, which allowed readers to observe the styles of professional academic publishers in each country.
Each year during TIBE, the university publishers' exhibition stands out as one of the few booth areas to showcase primarily academic publications. This year, the publishing houses of ten domestic universities brought their strengths to the exhibition, including, in addition to NTU, Sun Yat-sen University, National Central University, National Chung Hsing University, National Chiao Tung University, National Cheng Kung University, National Chengchi University, National Tsing Hua University, Taipei National University of the Arts, and National Taiwan Normal University. Together, the university publishers presented readers with thousands of books and other publications covering a wide range of topics, including literature, history, philosophy, natural sciences, and art.
Taking advantage of TIBE's evening hours, the university presses scheduled some of the lectures held in conjunction with the exhibition to be held between 6:00 and 9:00 pm, to give busy working people the opportunity to attend the talks. Moreover, in coordination TIBE's offer of free admission to students up to the senior year of high school, the publishers expanded their student discount for on-site purchases, offering a 21% discount on an unlimited number of books to anyone presenting a student or employee ID card for a domestic school at any level.
(Resource: NTU HIGHLIGHTS April 2017)