Books in market, libraries strictly different

SURABAYA (JP): Why do people flock to bookshops but never to the library?

Educational communication expert Endang R. Soewarno said most people, especially the young, don't find library books very interesting. "What's available in the stores you can't find in the libraries. This is why libraries are not interesting for young people," said Endang.

She added that most schools and universities have limited budgets to fill their libraries with quality books.

"In this situation teachers need to be active in stimulating a love for reading," she said.

She cited Victoria, Australia, where primary school teachers have obligatory reading sessions for parents and children every week.

In Australia, however, the kind of books sold in bookstores are not much different from those found in libraries. Schools in Victoria make it a priority to fill their libraries with books similar to those being sold, she said.

She suggested that local teachers emulate the teachers in Victoria, where first grade students are encouraged to read a lot. By the third grade they are able to rewrite or retell the stories they read.

"Such assignments stimulate children's ability to analyze things," she said, adding that many children in Victoria have stated that they want to be writers when they grow up.

"Of the millions of Indonesian children, how many want to be writers? Very few. Maybe one in a thousand."

Endang, who lectures at the Surabaya Teachers Training College, blames the country's low reading levels on the emergence of the private television stations six years ago.

"The culture of television entered our country when the culture of reading had yet to be established," she said. "It is different from countries like Japan or America where people were already book lovers when TV was booming."

Reading habits must be inherited, she said. If parents love books, the children will follow. If they don't, the parents would at least have created an atmosphere in which literature is respected.

The problem is, she said, many elder people here are not book lovers. "Even worse, they are now becoming lovers of television soap operas and telenovelas."

Endang suggested that more book exhibitions be held. Children should be given alternatives to "boring" school books and TV programs.

She also suggested that more stimulating activities be held. "Primary school students, for instance, could be invited to join in a contest of retelling or story telling," she said. "Or, what about a contest where children have to guess the authors of certain famous books and who publishes them?" (27)