Librarian battles for literary culture

By Irawati Wisnumurti

JAKARTA (JP): Colleagues have described the head of the National Library, Mastini Hardjoprakoso, as a quietly elegant lady who loves embroidery and is passionate about the outdoors.

Although she is gentle, humorous and loves children, Mastini is known as a tough and disciplined lady who is serious about her work.

Directly responsible to President Soeharto, she established the concept of a national library to gather national and international publications, and national treasures like writings on bones and papyrus. She also helps develop other libraries in Indonesia.

Commenting on law number 4/1990 on the compulsory presentation and registration of published material, she said the private sector was quite disciplined and submitted copies of publications promptly.

But the government has not been submitting copies as often or as quickly as it should, she pointed out.

"Indeed, the provincial governments are more responsive. But the central government is not responsive enough. People need to remember that the books will be preserved, as the National Library's role is record keeping. It is only for research and reference, unlike a public library," Mastini said.

"All our pre-independence records are virtually intact. Many that are missing, are from recent times. In the future, this could be such a shame, for today's news and writings will have historical importance for the future," she said.

She travels annually to many provinces to introduce selected collections of the National Library in universities and to increase national awareness about the importance of reading.

"Reading should become a habit, a culture. Right now, in Indonesia, we are still dominated by our culture of oral traditions," she said.

Most elementary school libraries have only textbooks and study guides, and not enough fun books to encourage children to love reading, she said.

"Many feel that reading is a duty. It should not be like that. Unfortunately, books are still expensive, and school libraries do not have enough funding to buy more books.

"Reading as a culture should also come from the family. This is still difficult to accomplish as many parents don't emphasize the importance of reading in the family," she said.

She helped create a program to send books to remote villages and towns using "traveling libraries" which are on buses, motorcycles, bicycles, boats, and ships.

Many local governments work with the National Library so that books are rotated regularly every week.

"It is wonderful to see the children wait eagerly for the books to arrive," she said.

Royal family

Mastini, whose nickname is "Nok," was born on July 7, 1923, as one of eight children, in Mojogedang, Central Java.

She is a descendant of Surakarta's Mangkunegaran royal family. Her father was the finance minister for Mangkunegoro VII's government during the colonial days.

It was her father who instilled in her and her family a passion for reading.

In 1953, a friend asked her to work at the Indonesian Cultural Institution's (LKI) library.

With the help of the library's director, Dr. Van Der Wouden, she learned about the library and its system.

Her hard work paid off when she won a scholarship to attend a one-year nondegree program on library science in the Netherlands in 1955.

The next year, she traveled in Europe where she saw that countries like France and Germany had national libraries.

She realized Indonesia needed such a library and it became her dream.

When she returned to Indonesia, she continued to work at LKI's library.

The Indonesian government took over in 1962 and changed its name to the Central Museum Library and Mastini became head of the library.

She continued as its head and in 1979 it was renamed the National Museum Library.

She began running courses on library science and documentation, specifically on cataloging.

Later, she helped develop the University of Indonesia Faculty of Letters' library science department where she taught for 16 years. She resigned in 1989 because of the demands of her work with the National Library.

In 1970, she accepted the invitation from the dean of the University of Hawaii's graduate school of library science, Robert Stevens, with financial support from Asia Foundation, to attend the school's graduate program.

Although she did not have an undergraduate degree, the University of Hawaii felt her accomplishments as a distinguished librarian exceeded a graduate's credentials.

She obtained her Masters in library science in May 1972. One of her papers was titled: "The Need for a National Library in Indonesia."

On her return to Indonesia, she translated this paper in 1973 and it was submitted to the government.

Scholars and the government responded positively to the paper and the Association of Indonesian Librarians held discussions in Ciawi.

In 1977 a team of scholars presented a paper, prepared by Professor Selo Soemardjan, titled: "A Report and Recommendation on a National Library System and a National Library of Indonesia".

It led to a decree by the then minister of education, Daoed Joesoef, in 1980, establishing the National Library of Indonesia.

It was a merger of the National Museum Library, the Library of History, Politics and Social Sciences, the Bibliography and Deposit Division-the Center for Library Development, and the Jakarta Regional Library.

The merger was completed in 1989 in its current location on Jl. Salemba Raya in Central Jakarta.

In 1989 a presidential decree merged the National Library with the regional libraries in 26 provinces and the Center for Library Development, and made the library a non-departmental government body directly responsible to the President.

This meant it was no longer under the Department of Education and Culture.

On May 17, 1990, President Soeharto swore in Mastini as Head of the National Library.