At least 500 librarians from South East Asian countries will attend a seminar on “Mobile Libraries and Folklore Arranging in South East Asia†from 10 to 12 November at the Inna Garuda Hotel of Yogyakarta. The governor of Yogyakarta, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, will open the seminar at the Theater of Trimurti Prambanan, on Monday night (10/11).
The Secretary-General of IPI (Indonesia’s Librarian Association), Drs Zulfikar Zen MA on Monday informed the Fortakgama correspondent that the discussion on the mobile library is of high significance in relation with the Government’s plan to realize 20 percent of the APBN (national budget) and APBD (local government budget) for the education sector. Some of the budget are for libraries since in the Indonesian law it has been decreed that minimum 5 percent of school budget and 10 percent of university budget goes to libraries.
“For public and local libraries there will be more percentage,†he said.
Mobile library is one of the kinds of library services that delivers reading materials to its readers. Mobile library can take the form of cars, motorbike, bicycle, boat, ships, etc. to support the existence of mobile library in order to promote the quality of human resources is the responsibility of the local leaders.
The autonomy system and decentralization have been applied, but the inequality of local development still occurs. The number of mobile library in Indonesia does not reach more than 200 in figure.
Samsul Bahri, a national librarian, said that the existence of mobile library determines the increase of motivation to read and write, while the geographical state of Indonesia has become a major reason why it needs more mobile libraries.
“Not all local people have the time to visit the library, thus we need to get them close to the reading materials,†he explained.
Samsul also mentioned that there are only 3600 librarians in Indonesia, which means that every librarian has to serve 70 thousand people, whereas the ideal is every librarian should serve only 150 people.
Zulfikar Zen added that the electronic generation are more keen to watch then to read.
According to his opinion, books are important material to broaden insight and knowledge and they keep valuable information. He said that only 14 percent of the information in the internet is scientific, the rest are entertainment.
The head of IPI DIY, M Adhisupo said that the seminar will discuss the librarians’ experiences in various countries in the mobile library program and the arrangement of selected bibliography with folklore annotated in South East Asia.
(Public Relations of UGM/Gusti Grehenson)