Foreign textbooks slow to reach Indonesia: Librarian
JAKARTA (JP): Most foreign textbooks are slow to reach Indonesia in spite of strong demand, a librarian says.
It takes an average of one year after publication in the West for new titles to become available in this country, Tina T. Nanny, the chief librarian of Yarsi University, said yesterday.
This situation applied to books in virtually all branches of science, and particularly economics, business studies, natural sciences, and medicine.
Other Southeast Asian countries, like Singapore and Malaysia, did not face such delays she said, adding that it was common to find bookstores and university libraries there offering books that were published in England this year.
Yarsi University is holding a book exhibition at its campus on Jl. Cempaka Putih in conjunction with a workshop to discuss the role of college libraries in the global information era.
Both the workshop and exhibition end tomorrow.
Eight foreign publishers of university books and four Indonesian companies are taking part in the exhibition.
One of the participants is Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), which publishes at least three new titles each month.
Khairani Hj Osman, representing the institute, said ISEAS had encountered difficulties in selling its books in Indonesia because very few bookstores were willing to take them.
"Our books usually are for specific readers, such as university students and professionals," Khairani said, adding that ISEAS books were now being distributed in Jakarta through Times book shops.
ISEAS, a government-supported agency, concentrates in publishing books on economics, and social and political developments of countries in the region. Most are written by scholars from Southeast Asia.
Other foreign publishers at the exhibition include McGraw Hill Prentice Hall of the United States, Library Service UK, University Microfilms of Australia, Silver Platter of Australia Dynix Australia, Institute of Physics UK, and Swets & Zeitlinger of the Netherlands. (12)