Readers And Writers Rejoice As India Bookworld Set To Open Doors In Surrey

SURREY – Readers and writers in theEnglish and Punjabi language rejoice as anew book store catering to the largeSouth Asian community is set to opendoors in Surrey.Dr. Rajwant Singh Chilana, an AssociateProfessor (Emeritus) at the University ofIllinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA, isopening India Bookworld in Surrey at theYork Centre Mall (#117B – 12888-80thAvenue).The Grand Opening for the book storewill be held next Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2p.m. and will be inaugurated by Surreycouncillor Barinder Rasode.Dr. Chilana, who holds MSc (Zoology),MLS, and PhD degrees, and earlierserved as Librarian at the University ofBritish Columbia, Vancouver andUniversity of Delhi, India as well asLibrary Manager at the Fraser ValleyRegional Library, British Columbia(Canada), said it was his passion projectto have such a store in Surrey after longbeing in the book distribution business.The store will be run by Dr. Chilana andhis wife Amrit Kaur Chilana, who recentlyretired as a Teacher from theVancouver School Board, and has beeninvolved in the book selection and sellingbusiness too at Asian Publications (parentstore of the India Bookworld) for thelast 20 years. He has published eightbooks and over thirty five researchpapers, and thirty book reviews on variousaspects for South Asian librarianship.His latest book InternationalBibliography of Sikh Studies was publishedby Springer in 2005, and is alsoavailable as online searchable database.He has received many scholarships andfellowships from the University ofIllinois, University Grants Commissionas well as Indo-Canadian Sastri Institute,Calgary (Canada) for various researchprojects relating to India.Dr. Chilana is actively involved in variousprofessional organizations, and has beenMember at Large, Executive member andVice-Chair Elect of the Asian, Africanand the Middle Eastern Section(AAMES), of the Association of Collegeand Research Libraries (ACRL), an organof the American Library Association.He is founding editor of the AAMESNewsletter. He can be reached at 604-595-2923 or through E-mail [email protected]