The Annual Book Fair was organized by the Biju Patnaik Central Library of the Institute at the NCC ground in the campus from Thursday, 10th November, 2011 to Saturday, 12th November, 2011. The book Fair was inaugurated by Prof. S. K. Sarangi, Director, NIT Rourkela at 10 a.m. on Thursday. New books were added to the Library while students and faculty also ordered books for themselves. 53 book depots participated in the fair, four being from Rourkela and others from various cities like Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Kolkata and New Delhi.
Unfortunately, the depots other than the local ones, i.e., The Student Book Depot, Knowledge Book Store, The Best and Punam Book Store, saw less participation from the students and the faculty, the reason being that they demanded on-spot payment from the students and did not accept orders so that the amount may be paid from the book fees deposited with the Institute at the beginning of the semester.
According to Mr. Rao, Assistant Librarian, BPCL, who was in charge of the book fair along with Prof. D. P. Tripathy, Department of Mining Engineering, the turnout of students was less than expected. Only 40% of the total students attended the fair. When asked about the prices of books and discounts, he reassured that the prices of books were perfectly reasonable and were according to the catalogues of the various publications. The catalogues were provided for all to see and the depots were required to provide price proofs before the books were bought by the library. Also, a 20% discount was offered to the students and faculty and 25% to the library. All in all, it was a successful book fair.
