I

n golden Javanese script, a collection of romantic stories by a former king of Yogyakarta lies silent in a cool room of an old Dutch building in Central Jakarta.

These old manuscripts are bound under the title Serat Suryaraja, written by a prince of the Yogyakarta kingdom in 1774 before took the throne to become King Hamengkubuwono II.

Serat Suryaraja is one of nearly 10,000 old manuscripts that are available for viewing at the National Library - celebrating its 29th anniversary on May 17.

There is also a document from 1865 written in Arabic, containing the laws of Aceh during the rule of Sri Sultan Alauddin Mansyur Syah Johan.

Another is Serat Pakem Wirama Wileting Gendhing Pradangga, an 838-page book, also in Javanese script, complete with illustrations and musical notations explaining Javanese music and gamelan. This book was written by KRT Wiraguna in 1889 on orders from King Hamengkubuwono VIII.

Another manuscript written on European paper denotes a free trade agreement between the "Pasai" and "Sikiling Air Bani" regions in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in 1850.

One of the highlights of the collection is the Negarakertagama, written on lontar leaves by Empu Prapanca between the years 1350 and 1389. This document was listed by UNESCO in 2008, as part of its the Memory of the World Programme.

The rich collection of manuscripts, are among some 390,000 titles including books, VCDs, microfilms, atlases, paintings and journals in the National Library collection.

"Our collection consists of about 1 million volumes," said National Library information chief Woro Titi Haryanti.

By comparison, the National Library of Australia, which evolved from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, established in 1901, holds more than 2.7 million volumes. The National Library of Malaysia, has more than 1.3 million.

Indonesia's National Library is currently developing an online catalog to integrate the databases of 35 provincial and university libraries across Indonesia.

"This is a project with millions of bits of information, the first phase of which we hope to complete this year," Woro said.

"We will also be digitizing some of the old manuscripts, including from provincial libraries," she said.

To celebrate its 29th birthday. as of this month the National Library is processing membership applications free of charge, and this membership is valid for five years. (Previously a membership was only valid for one year, and cost Rp 10,000.)

Juli, head of the library's registration unit, said since the introduction of the new program about 100 people have been applying for memberships every day, compared to around 50 people a day previously.

Between January and the middle of May, the library has gained more than 7,000 new members, Juli said. In 2007 it gained 18,163 new members, and 17,107 in 2008.

It only takes about five minutes to apply for a membership card if there is nobody else waiting, but it takes about 20 minutes to wait in line to have your picture taken. About 25 people were waiting during lunchtime on Thursday. Applicants are required to present ID cards, while foreigners must present passports.

Faisal Amir, a PhD candidate of Jakarta State University was among the applicants on Thursday.

"I just arrived from Makassar, and I thought I should to join because I need access to many of the references here."

National Library chairwoman Sri Sulastri said, "The National Library also supports libraries in other regions. Requests for books come in almost every day."

Indonesia's youngest provincial library is in Bangka Belitung, and second youngest in Papua Barat, among some 100 regency and city libraries. "One of the best provincial libraries is in Pekanbaru, while the library of Malang is one of the best city libraries."

The libraries have annual budgets of Rp 70 million each, Rp 60 million of which must go toward buying new books, Sulastri said.

Of the 350 public libraries in Indonesia, only one-third have collections exceeding 50,000 volumes, while the remainder have around 30,000 each.

The National Library will celebrate its anniversary with movie screenings, a book exhibition, a concert by the legendary band Koes Plus, and a workshop on preserving documents against floods.