Libraries in Jakarta

As a short-term tourist to Jakarta, but a librarian and then academic in Australia for the duration of my working life, I hesitate to adopt what may seem a patronizing attitude in my host city. I have been extremely interested in your series of articles about libraries. But libraries are not literacy.

What the articles lack is an understanding of the many forms of literacy these days. Fixation on the numbers of volumes of books or opening hours of specific institutions overlooks the fact that most people use informal means of access to information. For example, recently I was walking the streets to acclimatize myself, street directory in hand, and frequently I was offered verbal advice about how to find my way. And where I could go! Acquisition of information is not confined to print publications or organized systems.

An over-emphasis on tangible library resources also misses the fact that more and more people rely on a broad range of media for communication of knowledge. The widespread use of radio, mobile phones and SMS messaging in Jakarta are examples. Literacy in all forms of communication media is essential for most forms of development -- social, economic and political. The modern library might well transmogrify into an adaptation of the Internet, with access from work and home, known in Australia as the "virtual library", in Europe as the "hybrid library".

Give us the benefit of an article on such fresh forms of delivery and use of knowledge, not just the staid and traditional.

GRAEME JOHANSON, Caulfield, Victoria, Australia

Note: Thank you for your suggestion.

--Editor