Library lagging behind

Library lagging behind

From Media Indonesia

I am commenting on the statement by Melling Simanjuntak, Director of Library of the United States Information Service (Media Indonesia, July 27 1995). He said: "So, if compared to Singapore, our library is lagging far behind. However, compared to Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, the situation is not that inferior."

I think we are also unfortunately far behind Malaysia and Thailand. Prof. Andi Hakim Nasution once wrote, while he was visiting and staying at a Malaysian campus, that one night he heard the foot-steps of a group of students returning from the library at about midnight. Has this kind of activity ever happened in an Indonesian university? Gajah Mada University library's reading room opens from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and reopens from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. While the lending section service lasts from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. But the afternoon service usually takes place during semester exams.

We are still lagging behind Thailand as far as library service is concerned. Many Indonesians are doing post graduate studies in Thailand's universities, like Asian Institute of Technology Mahidol, Chulalangkorn and Thammasat universities. But I don't think there are as many Thai students doing post graduate studies in Indonesian universities.

Gajah Mada University has two central libraries and 20 faculty libraries and a number of research libraries. All these libraries combined house about 380,000 volumes, most of which are old books.

It is unfortunate to note that this university seems to have no sound judgment of the scale of priority. The newly built auditorium cost about Rp 10 billion. Now they are building a stadium, of which only heaven knows the cost. Meanwhile they try to enlarge the library collection through begging from foreign embassies, foundations and/or foreign universities.

I do not particularly believe that libraries are scarcely utilized because of the low reading habit of the people, but rather due to the unavailability of the titles needed for particular studies.

ADE PRIYATNA

Bekasi, West Java