Indonesia digital library: Dreams and reality

Indonesia digital library: Dreams and reality

By Rosa Widyawan

JAKARTA (JP): Digital libraries might make research easier for
scholars, as well as easing the budgetary pressures on libraries.
They might solve our intellectual heritage preservation problems,
or they might help libraries extend their collections to include
new media. But perhaps their most important advantage would be
their ability to help society, to make information more
available, improve its quality and increase its diversity.

In some developed countries, there are libraries (e.g. in some
pharmaceutical companies) which already spend more than half
their acquisition budgets on electronic resources, rather than
paper. Meanwhile, many university libraries are finding it
impossible to maintain their traditional collection practices
within the constraints of their institutional budgets. As a
result they are looking eagerly to the new technology as a
solution.

The Central Library of the Bandung Institute of Technology
(ITB Central Library) recently initiated the Indonesia Digital
Library Network, in cooperation with the Computer Network
Research Group and the Knowledge Management Research Group. This
project is aimed at improving graduate education and increasing
the sharing of information among education and research
institutions through the development of a national digital
library of final projects, theses, dissertations, research
reports and expertise directories.

The Mellon Foundation has done studies showing that between
1970 and 2000 the typical U.S. academic research library will
lose nearly all of its purchasing power. Increases in journal and
monograph prices, currency shifts and increases in the number of
publications are all making it harder for libraries to afford
their previous level of purchases.

Nearly every university is reviewing its subscriptions and
canceling journals. In Indonesia, the situation is worse.
Libraries cannot afford to subscribe to international
publications. This is not only the result of dramatically
shrinking acquisition budgets, but also due to the fluctuation of
the rupiah against the dollar. It is not surprising that a big
research library like PDII-LIPI now only subscribes to five
journals, compared to the 1,000 core international journals it
subscribed to in 1997.

Since much of the cost of printing many scholarly journals is
prepress, a loss of subscriptions means that the cost to the
remaining subscribers must be increased. This will cause more
price increases. The solution probably is to publish them on CD-
ROM, a technology with huge economies of scale and low costs,
with production being in the range of $2. This situation has
inspired some libraries in Indonesia to publish their catalogs
and secondary literatures on CD-ROM. Of course, this makes it
easier to disseminate the information all over the archipelago.

In addition to problems buying materials, libraries are beset
by increasing costs for buildings and storage, and with a
steadily growing problem of paper books which are deteriorating
and in need of treatment.

Using the technology

In the U.S., over 100 million books are brittle, and there is
as yet no suitable solution, although there are expensive
photocopying and deacidification methods, as well as
microfilming. Some fine and rare books in Indonesia are
endangered due to humidity and pollution. This has led the
National Library to carry out a project to digitalize their rare
collection, and this ongoing project is supported by some related
institutions.

Although the advantages of digital libraries are their ability
to help society, to make information more available, improve its
quality and increase its diversity, there are few institutions
here supporting this idea. This might derive from a lack of
awareness among decisionmakers on the importance of sharing
information, and also preserving intellectual heritage. The
Digital Library Network project being carried out by ITB has not
had an enthusiastic response by other libraries, only a few of
which intend to join the network.

In general, the utilization of information technology in
Indonesian universities is relatively low compared to their
counterparts in developed countries. There are around 35
universities here that have their own homepages. These homepages
carry company profiles, academic agendas, publications or
enrollment. Of the 35 university homepages, only Diponegoro
University publishes an electronic journal.

University libraries in Indonesia are pioneers in providing
their catalogs over the web, although there are only seven
universities which provide access to their Online Public Accessed
Catalog.

Most universities use their websites as promotional leaflets,
for enrollment, chatting or bulletin boards with (excuse me) no
relationship to academic matters. It seems there is the belief
only a prestigious institution can have a good website. People
are competing to put their company profiles on the web, but they
do not have any interesting matter, such as a database. Often,
people build links without considering the needs of their
clientele.

On the other hand, special and research libraries have made no
significant developments in building their digital libraries.
Also, there is still no standardization of offering catalogs on
the web. It seems they should be looking back to the philosophy
of cataloging.

When clients find information on the web and place an order,
document delivery is still a major obstacle. Generally, library
clientele find difficulties in using electronic document delivery
because of the frustrating and expensive telecommunications
infrastructure. The best solution is waiting two weeks for snail
mail.

Indonesians are enthusiastic in using this new information
technology, seen by the significant increase in requests for
computerized cataloging, electronic publishing, webliography,
etc. But this will not be of much use without the support of
policymakers.

For an underdeveloped Indonesia, which is still facing
difficulties in prosecuting corrupt bureaucrats and enforcing the
law, digital libraries are an expensive investment. People have
to explore the advantages of Internet technology for the welfare
of everyone. Otherwise it will be like rowing a luxurious glass
canoe across a dangerous and wild ocean.

The writer is a librarian at PDII-LIPI, Jakarta. She can be
reached at rosa widyawan@hotmail.com.