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