Librarians asked to widen knowledge

Librarians asked to widen knowledge

JAKARTA (JP): Vice President Try Sutrisno yesterday told
Indonesian librarians to broaden their knowledge and keep up with
scientific and technological advances.

Opening the seventh congress and national seminar of the
Indonesian Librarians Association, Try said Indonesia needs "a
great number of quality librarians" in order to deal with the
rapid flow of information and scientific development.

"Only professional librarians can manage libraries well and
provide good services to the public," Try told some 1,000
participants.

Soekarman Kartosedono, the chairman of the librarians
association, said the four-day congress would tackle a broad
range of issues including techniques to instill strong reading
habits in young people.

He said that one of the greatest obstacles to recruiting good
librarians is poor pay. Librarians employed by the state are paid
one-fifth of the salaries of researchers and teachers, he said.

Soekarman said Indonesia will be host to an international
congress of librarians in 2005; a total of 130 countries will
participate in the gathering.

In another part of his speech, Try spoke of the government's
campaign to educate the public by establishing libraries across
the country.

According to 1993 statistics, there are about 15,000
government libraries. Indonesia's population currently stands at
190 million.

It was with the goal of educating the public in mind that the
government issued a law in 1990 which requires publishers and
record producers to submit a number of copies of their products
to national libraries, he said.

"In accordance with this law, we expect that printed materials
and recordings will be stored, and thus become more easily
accessible to the public," he said.

Librarians have long complained about the lax enforcement of
the 1990 Law on Printed Materials and Recordings. Last week, the
National Central Library in Jakarta announced the establishment
of a team to intensify the campaign to push publishers and
recording companies to comply with the law.

This team, which is due to start work in February, will start
by reminding publishers and producers that they face a maximum
fine of Rp 5 million (US$ 2,200) or a six-month jail sentence
unless they submit at least two copies of their products no later
than three months after publication.

Ediyami Bondan Andoko, who heads the Department for the
Preservation and Deposit of materials at the National Library,
told The Jakarta Post that the library has yet to take legal
action against publishers or producers who have failed to comply
with the law.

"We have been biding our time in our campaign to introduce the
law," Ediyami said.

She said many publishers and producers are still ignorant of
the law. "There are those who already know, but ignore it
anyway," she said. "There are also publishers who submit only
low-priced books to the library. Books with prices over Rp 50,000
are not being submitted to the National Library."

Since the law was passed, the National Library has only
received about 33,000 books and magazines and around 10,000
recordings from publishers and producers.

The campaign has been conceived to raise public awareness of
the law through televised talk shows, among other things.
Publishers, librarians, books and magazines importers, recording
companies, law enforcers and the public will be involved in the
drive. (swe/31)