YOGYAKARTA (KU) – Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) will build five new library buildings spanning on area measuring 13 thousand square meters around the Integrated Library Unit I in Bulaksumur. The construction of the building is targeted for completion in 2014, costing about 56.7 billion rupiah.
Drs. Ida Fajar Priyanto, M.A, Head of UGM Library, said that the buildings located on the south side of UGM Main Office are later intended for extending library services, particularly for digital collections and the addition of shared learning community.
The entire building will use eco-friendly materials. A roof garden will be constructed in each building as a recreation place for library visitors. According to the plan, the five buildings called "five-clusters" will consist of two buildings with five storeys and three buildings with three storeys. "For the first phase, two five-storey buildings will be built to be completed up to year 2012," Fajar said on Wednesday (22/9).
Ida Fajar explained that the addition of the new buildings is expected to extend library services to UGM academic community. Previously, the library service is 0.5 square meter per student, but with the new buildings, services will expand to 0.7 square meter per student. "UGM library service is currently 0.5 m2 per student. It has exceeded the national standard, which is 0.4 square meter," he said.
Even so, the level of expansion of library services at UGM is still less than that in international universities abroad. For international university level, library services have reached one square meter per student. "During a study tour to several countries, we learned that the average of international universities already reached up to one square meter per student," he added.
Seeking Information Behavior Has Changed
Ida Fajar admitted that library managers had already desired to add new library buildings for a long time. The expansion of this new building is aimed to answer information behavior of library visitors that has changed. "Trend in searching for information has now changed. Formerly, seeking information is done by reading books in libraries, now they are using laptops or computers. They download digital books even more. As a result, the utilization of the printed collection has slightly reduced, but the digital collections grow," he explained.
In the reading room of digital collections, at least adequate facilities are required, especially for computer equipment and access space for visitors to use their own notebook and laptop. Therefore, more central computer terminals are needed. "The space needed is greater. Moreover, students prefer to learn together. Later, the new building will provide many small rooms for discussion with information technology facility," he added.
The tendency of grouped learning inspires UGM managers to design rooms in the library building with recreational park facility located on the roof of the building. "The roof in the form of grass can be used for outdoor relaxation, reading books or downloading information through hot spot facility," he explained.
The addition of five new buildings increased the total area of the library buildings at UGM to 17 thousand square meters. This vast area has included libraries in 18 faculties.
Previously, Director of Planning and Development, Dr. Ir. Adam Pamudji Rahardjo, M.Sc., told reporter that the establishment of new library buildings had long been planned. It is being realized now because UGM is also currently building the Educational Hospital. ‘We expect within 3-4 years, the library buildings will be finished," he said.