Library offers alternative pastime
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As part of World Literacy Day which fell on Sept. 8, The Jakarta Post's Evi Mariani has been investigating library facilities in the city. Today, we take a look at libraries of two prominent research centers.
People who prefer to read rather than go to a mall or an entertainment center on the weekend can visit the Freedom Institute Library on Jl. Irian, Central Jakarta.
"One of the benefits of our library is that we are opened seven days a week," librarian Yanti Susanti told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The library, which was set up in early 2002, has 8,000 book titles and 56 titles of major periodicals. Most of the books are new and in English.
"Our book collection focuses on economics, politics and Islam. We also have many literature books," she said. "We add about 100 new titles to the collection every month."
Those who want to learn about Islam, especially liberal Islam, can choose from more than 200 titles of Islam books.
Potential patrons of the library can search through www.freedom-institute.org for books they want to read before visiting the library.
The library also has three computers with Internet access, free to be used by patrons.
However, as the library has not seriously promoted its existence, not many people visit it.
"We have an average 10 visitors per day," Yanti said. "Most of them are students from the University of Indonesia, Driyarkara School of Philosophy and Jakarta Islamic University.
"We want to be one of the reference libraries in Jakarta, like the library of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)," she said.
However, the 33-year-old CSIS library is certainly more complete in terms of book collection.
Located on Jl. Tanah Abang III, Central Jakarta, the CSIS library has 25,896 titles of books and papers, 316 titles of foreign and local periodicals and journals and hundreds of thousands of news clippings. More than 3,000 titles are added to its vast collection every month.
The CSIS library remains the most reliable source of information for researchers and opens Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
"There are an average of 150 visitors a day," Maria Margrith, the head of CSIS' library, told the Post.
She said more than 80 percent of the patrons were university students, mostly undergraduate students. "Others are researchers, journalists, law firm employees and civil servants."
"I spent most of my time at the CSIS library," said Dirk Tomsa, a PhD candidate of the University of Melbourne. "The most valuable resource I find there is the news clippings."
Tomsa, who has conducted research on the Golkar Party, said the CSIS library was the best for sources on Indonesia-related topics.
Maria said that the favorite topics for CSIS patrons were, among others, international relations, politics, history and the military.