Bekasi Archive and Library Service Introduces Digital Reading Corner at Museum Gedung Juang

The Archive and Library Service (Disarpus) of Bekasi Regency has introduced a Digital Reading Corner (Pocadi) at the Museum Gedung Juang, located in Setiadarma Village, South Tambun District. This initiative aims to expand digital literacy access for students and the general public in the area. Through this facility, people from various backgrounds in Bekasi Regency can now access hundreds of digital book collections free of charge. Pocadi provides a comfortable reading space equipped with tablet devices and free Wi-Fi access, allowing visitors to easily browse the available digital reading collections. Head of Disarpus Bekasi Regency, Jaoharul Alam, stated that the programme is the result of a collaboration between Disarpus Bekasi Regency and the National Library (Perpusnas). According to him, Pocadi was established as a means to broaden public access to digital-based reading materials, making it easier for the community to obtain information and knowledge. “Pocadi at Gedung Juang predominantly provides digital book collections. The physical book collection is indeed smaller compared to the digital collection because Pocadi’s purpose is to enhance literacy in a digital format,” Jaoharul said on Monday (22/6). Jaoharul noted that the number of visits to Pocadi Gedung Juang is quite high, especially among students from the Tambun area and its surroundings. In addition to providing digital book collections, Pocadi also offers various non-digital literacy activities, such as storytelling services for children. “Sometimes schools bring their students to Pocadi, and our staff then provide storytelling activities as a medium to convey information and foster a reading interest from an early age,” he said. Overall, the level of library visits has been quite good and is dominated by elementary and junior high school students. Meanwhile, visits from the general public are acknowledged to still need improvement. “The majority of visitors are elementary and junior high school students. For the general public, numbers are still not high, but we are open to anyone who wishes to visit Pocadi or the nearest library,” he explained. Disarpus Bekasi Regency is also continuously strengthening its digital library services through the iBekasiKab application. The application features various electronic book collections resulting from a collaboration with Aksara Maya. “We are currently continuing to add digital book collections through our partnership with Aksara Maya. The iBekasiKab application provides various latest book collections that can be accessed by the public,” he clarified. Besides digitalisation, Disarpus is also consistently increasing the number and variety of physical book collections. This is done as one of the indicators for improving the Community Literacy Development Index (IPLM). The addition of collections is carried out through commercial procurement and support from corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. “We are also continuously adding to the collection and variety of books. Some come from procurement, and others from CSR in the form of book grants which we then distribute to various libraries,” said Jaoharul. Through this innovation, the Head of Disarpus invites the entire community to utilise the various library facilities and services provided by the local government, both conventional libraries and digital services. “Enjoy the available book collections, the comfortable reading rooms, and the digital literacy access that can be utilised by various groups, such as students, university students, civil servants, and the general public. We are committed to providing easily accessible library services for the entire community,” he concluded.