Literary treasures on offer at Alumni Book Fair

Spend the long weekend expanding your personal library at the popular UQ Alumni Book Fair.

Approximately 150,000 books, magazines, CDs, and sheets of music will be available to purchase from Saturday, April 30 through to Wednesday, May 4 at the UQ Centre, St Lucia.

“You can buy a book for as little as 50c or a magazine for 20c, with average prices being around $3,” Senior Vice-President of the Alumni Friends of The University of Queensland Inc Patricia Jones said.

At the other end of the scale, more than 150 rare books will be up for auction at 6:30pm on Friday, April 29 at the Women’s College Playhouse. Customers are welcome to inspect the titles from 4pm.

“We have two particular books this year, which seem to be quite rare, both by Sir William Hamilton,” Ms Jones said.

Held every two years, the book fair aims to raise funds for student scholarships, University projects, and to bring alumni and members of the general public to UQ’s campus.

“One of our most interesting donations in the past year was providing $5000 to enable Rebecca Rowling, a law graduate, to take up an internship at the International Court of Justice in the Hague,” Ms Jones said.

This year’s event is expected to attract thousands of bargain hunters and raise around $120,000.

Offering everything from art to zoology titles, textbooks, and novels, organisers and an army of regular volunteers have been collecting and sorting sale merchandise for the last two years.

“We receive books from the UQ Library, the parliamentary library, schools, and organisations who do not want to throw books out,” Ms Jones said.

She said donations were always welcome at the Alumni Friends office at 50 Walcott Street, St Lucia.

For more information about donating or attending the book fair, visit the Alumni Friends website.

Media: Patricia Jones (alumni@uq.edu.au or 07 3365 1562) or Allison Rock at UQ Communications (a.rock1@uq.edu.au or 07 3365 2619)