KITLV: Where we can learn about RI<\/p>\n
LEIDEN, The Netherlands (JP): Foreign scholars may imagine
\nthat the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology, the
\nscholarly association that focuses on studies of Southeast Asia,
\nCaribbean and Oceania, has its office in a grand building.<\/p>\n
Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-Land-en Volkenkunde's (KITLV)
\nthree-story office, located on the bank of the beautiful Witte
\nSingel moat which encircles the city, actually occupies a modest
\nbuilding.<\/p>\n
But inside the dull gray structure lies the great heritage of
\nIndonesia in the form of scholarly books, manuscripts,
\naudiovisual aids, photographs and others.<\/p>\n
Just name the area of humanities studies on Indonesia, such as
\nregional dialects -- some of which are on the brink of extinction
\nlike the Papuan Bauzi and Menyah languages -- or on ethnic
\ngroups, and the material can be found here.<\/p>\n
On hand are the invaluable original letters sent by Indonesian
\nwomen's emancipation heroine Kartini to her Dutch friends, or
\nclassic literary works, like comic books by Kho Ping Ho and Gan
\nK.L.<\/p>\n
\"They could also be available in Indonesia, but a lot of time
\nwould be needed to locate them because of the poor indexing
\nsystem,\" said Jaap Erkelens, the head KITLV representative for
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
At present the institution manages 13,000 maps and atlases,
\n150,000 photographs from the colonial period, 3,500 prints and
\ndrawings, 1,325 Asian manuscripts and other records and 930
\naudiovisual aids.<\/p>\n
The extensive library is the pride of the KITLV. The
\ncollection ranges from the earliest folio editions to the most
\nrecent publications as well as everything in between. The
\ninstitute does not only restrict itself to documentation, but
\nalso turns its expert hand to publishing the findings of
\nscholarly research in book form.<\/p>\n
They have a long tradition of collecting data, right back to
\nits establishment in 1851 as a training center for colonial
\nambtenaar (civil servants).<\/p>\n
Last June, the institute celebrated its 150th anniversary,
\nholding various seminars and exhibitions with topics mostly
\nrelated to Indonesia, its main study.<\/p>\n
\"More than half of our resources focus on Indonesia,\" said
\nKITLV director Gert J. Oostindie.<\/p>\n
What Oostindie claimed can be seen in the institute's
\nrepository, located underground at the ideal temperature of 20
\ndegrees Celsius and 50 percent humidity for keeping books, and a
\ncapacity for 11 kilometers of printed material if they were
\narranged in a row.<\/p>\n
\"So far, our collection has reached about 10 km with 260,000
\ntitles and more than 500,000 volumes of material, about 60
\npercent of which are on Indonesia. We predict that the repository
\nwill be full within the next two years, thus we are planning to
\nbroaden it,\" said Roger Tol, the chief librarian.<\/p>\n
The collection also consists of the complete series of about
\n250 national and regional newspapers from Indonesia and also
\nmagazines.<\/p>\n
Old publications that are out of print, such as Indische
\nCourant, Sinar Hindia, Harian Rakyat, Indonesia Raya and Pelita
\nBatak, or media published in regional languages, such as in the
\nSudanese language magazine Mangle or the Javanese language
\nmagazine Djaka Lodang, can be found here.<\/p>\n
\"The hard copies are kept here for a couple of years because
\nthere is a policy that after two years the collection should be
\nsent to the National Library in The Hague. We then only have the
\nmicrofilm editions. We are proud of the collection, and even the
\nmanagement of a mass media company could only find its first
\nedition here,\" Tol said.<\/p>\n
The library's oldest publication dates back to 1521, and is a
\nhandwritten book about the laws of the Portuguese kingdom. It
\nstill is in good enough condition for visitors to safely leaf
\nthrough.<\/p>\n
In the reading room, people will also find specific
\nperiodicals, such as the daily report of current affairs in
\nIndonesia, a collection of news from electronic mass media, and
\nExcerpta Indonesica, a regular journal containing summaries of
\nprinted material on Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Indexing<\/p>\n
Indexing is another strong point of KITLV's, and through which
\nall data can easily be accessed via the computer system. The
\nindex includes 122 Indonesian magazines under a project called
\nthe Southeast Asia Serials Index, done in joint cooperation with
\nthe Australian National University since 1995.<\/p>\n
\"Our strength is indeed in consistent buying of the printed
\nmaterial on the same study. That's why financial support for the
\ncollection is quite big, and amounts to 250,000 guilders annually
\nfrom the KITLV's total budget of 5 million guilders,\" Tol said,
\nadding that the collection department together with the KITLV
\nPress are the main pillars of the institute.<\/p>\n
Publishing started in the first year of the institute's
\nexistence.Bijdragen (Contributions), the oldest journal on
\nIndonesia in the world that still exists, was the first
\nperiodical published, according to Harry A. Poeze, director of
\nKITLV Press.<\/p>\n
\"Every year we publish about 15 scholarly books, 80 percent of
\nwhich are about Indonesia, with writers not only from the
\nNetherlands but also from all over the world like Australia,
\nCanada, America, Japan and European countries.<\/p>\n
\"We have a commission of five experts meeting three times a
\nyear to assess the manuscripts submitted. So we guarantee that,
\nfrom the scientific point of view, our books are of good
\nquality,\" said Poeze, who is the author of the once banned book
\nabout Tan Malaka, a noted Indonesian nationalist.<\/p>\n
Pioneered by JC Baud on June 4, 1851, KITLV was established to
\ntrain the ambtenaar so that they can be accepted by people. \"So
\nthat they can exploit the country effectively,\" Tol jokingly
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Oostindie said that KITLV was an institution which has no
\npolitical agenda. \"We do our work and we are in this field and
\nproduce things which we hope are of use to the country we're
\nstudying.<\/p>\n
\"Any country should be happy if another country takes a
\ngenuine interest in it (and it also means) criticism, so if
\npeople at KITLV analyze politics in Indonesia, it would help the
\ncountry, too. All of the books are a contribution to studies on
\nIndonesia,\" Oostindie said.<\/p>\n
--Ida Indawati Khouw<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/kitlv-where-we-can-learn-about-ri-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }