Discover a New Love: Used Book Sale for Charity Starting in NCKU Library

TAINAN, Taiwan-(Business Wire)-September 23, 2009 - Discover new love from used books! “Used Book Sale for Charity” began on 10 am Sep 21st, at the entrance hall of NCKU library, Cheng-Kung Campus. This activity will be held from 10 am to 5 pm every day for one week till Sep 25th. The purpose of this activity is to provide book lovers not only with an exchange platform and a way to save more trees by preserving books, but also with a podium for merciful givings. The total sum sold in this year’s “Used Books for Sale” will be donated to the St. Raphael Opportunity Center which is a non-profitable day care center for children and adults with developmental or multiple disabilities from moderate and severe to profound degree.

Father Hugo Peter, the Director of St. Raphael Opportunity Center personally led more than ten students attending this activity to express their much appreciation to all well-wishers. Prof. Wen-Jen Hsieh as the Director of NCKU Library was present in this activity with deep appreciation and commented that “Used Book Sale for Charity” did not only give the best use of the books, but also to bring happiness to both donators and purchasers.

It is an activity full of warmth, caring and love. The NCKU library has held the annual used book sales for six consecutive years. It has received high regards for organizing this book sale from the community with the concept in mind on “cost-effective and knowledgeable book sales for students and community and concerning environment as well as caring the disadvantaged”. The NCKU Library has already collected nearly ten thousands volumes of books during the past five years for this book sale, which was sold in total for more than NT$ 600,000.

Besides the staffs from the NCKU Library, there are ten more students from St. Raphael Opportunity Center being the staff of this activity. Father Peter felt an immense gratitude to the NCKU Library that his students could have these opportunities to communicate and meet people. “It is really a lively learning opportunity for them,” said Father Peter.

All the used books with good quality that were ready for sale were prepared by all hard-working staffs this morning. There are more than 100 people joining this activity together. All the used books are divided into seven categories as Philosophy and Religion, Nature and Applied Sciences, Language and Literature, History and Geography, Arts and Leisure, Children Comic, and Calligraphy. In view of the hot sales of these used books this morning, all volumes shall even be sold out before last day originally set. If you would like to find your favorite used book with mercy, you might need to hurry up.

Besides “Used Book Sale for Charity”, Father Peter will also have a book signing party from 10 am to 11 am on the entrance hall of the NCKU Library for those who purchase his memoir entitled “Thirty-Seven Years Leave No Blank”. All sale money of Father Peter’s memoir will be combined in the total sale sum of the used books and given to the St. Raphael Opportunity Center.

The price tag of used books ranges from NT$ 10 higher up to NT$ 600. Those used books with high tag-price are mostly the original textbooks and those of so-called high-technology. However, all the participants are full of happiness and do not matter if the price is NT$ 10 or NT$ 600. The total sale amount of “Used Book Sale for Charity” till this noon has summed to NT$ 21,265, along with NT$ 5741 for Father Peter’s memoir.

To prepare for the annual used book sales in September, the NCKU library started to gear up hard early since every May to prepare necessary poster and promotion propaganda, and to collect, clean and classify used books since June. Though it is easy to buy or sell used books everywhere, the NCKU Library still works the best to organize this book sale and to coordinate efforts from NCKU community in order to contribute to the charity and the society. As a result, more than 3000 volumes of used books, the most ever, were collected from about 130 well-wishers.

The NCKU Library has held the annual used book sales since 2004, and it is the sixth this year. Recalling the contributions over the past years, in 2004, 109 people donated 1010 volumes of books and the total sale for charity were NT$ 63,040 that was given to the Tainan Branch of the Genesis Social Welfare Foundation. In 2005, 144 people contributed 2386 volumes of books with a total sale of NT$ 148,510 donated to Tainan Office of the Taiwan Funds for Children and Family. In 2006, 172 people kindly gave 2152 volumes of books for charity with a total sale of NT$ 144,455 donated to St. Raphael Opportunity Center, while in 2007 and 2008, 153 and 119 people bestowed 2390 and 2000 volumes of books, respectively. The sales were totaled at NT$ 138,330 and NT$ 109,260, respectively, given to the Tainan Branch of the Genesis Social Welfare Foundation and to Tainan Country Care and Concern Association on Intellectual Disability in 2007 and 2008.

About National Cheng Kung University (NCKU):

NCKU is located in the ancient city of Tainan, the historical and ancient cultural capital city of Taiwan, which boasts more than 50 national relics sanctioned by the government and is approximately 250 kilometers south of Taipei. It is connected to all major cities in Taiwan by the recently initiated state-of-the-art Taiwan High Speed Rail. Further, this historical heritage is the pride of Tainan City and represents a rich cultural resource to NCKU. The technological sectors in the Southern Taiwan Science Park offer students at NCKU with a stage to apply what they have learned into practice.

With three quarters of a century of distinguished history, with well over 130,000 powerful alumni now dotting the globe, many have achieved supreme successes in arts, business, education, science, technology and healthcare and are ready and willing to assist, with 22,000 academic selective students and 1200 academically significant faculty members currently, both have healthy dosage of international flavor, with enormous regional support, and with a permeating culture of proactive intellectual growth on the world’s stage, NCKU in Tainan, Taiwan, has evolved from its engineering genesis to become a powerful comprehensive, research and international university in Asia Pacific.

Since NCKU’s establishment in 1931, it has developed into a research intensive and comprehensive university with integrated academic fields in nine colleges: Liberal Arts, Sciences, Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Planning & Design, Management, Social Sciences, Medicine, and Bioscience & Biotechnology. NCKU currently offers 40 undergraduate programs (excluding Program of Bachelor’s Degree), 78 master’s degree programs, 54 doctoral programs and 20 master’s degree programs for working professionals.

Photos: http://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/cvpread.aspx?ID=38283

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