TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Elementary school students get new library
Students of state elementary school 7 in Jimbaran were delighted to receive a new library, a grant from US-based organization The World is just a Book Away that included a new collection of books in a refurbished building on school grounds
Change Size
S
tudents of state elementary school 7 in Jimbaran were delighted to receive a new library, a grant from US-based organization The World is just a Book Away that included a new collection of books in a refurbished building on school grounds.
Opened Saturday by organization founder and CEO James Owens, the library is the first established in Bali by the organization, which has also set up 21 other libraries in areas affected by the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster in East Java.
The new library provides more than 200 collections of books spanning a wide range topics from inventions to the natural sciences.
“We will equip this library with audio visual facilities to help the students learn better. We also plan to add more English books, as well as books for parents,” Owens said at the inauguration.
Owens said the library was established because he was concerned about the previous library. “I saw the previous condition, it was really bad.”
“It’s nice to see the children get excited reading the books. The children have overwhelming interests in reading, but unfortunately they don’t have enough access to books.”
Sixth-grader Putu Agus Indra Suryawan said he was happy to have a new library at his school. “We had a library before, but it only had a few books and was not as interesting as this new library,” he said.
The World is Just a Book Away was launched in October, 2008, by Owens, a professor at the University of Southern California, to bring books and education to children in developing countries.
This project, based on his own love for books, reading, and learning, was launched to help combat the overwhelming and growing need to educate children. The group partners with local communities in setting up libraries. “The name ‘World is Just a Book Away’ came from our belief that through reading, you can discover a lot of things about the world, and learn to do anything you want,” he said.
“Billions of children have access to what can only be deemed substandard education, often in overcrowded facilities that are old, dilapidated and unsafe. Having a book — just one book — to take home at night and read is a dream almost beyond their imagination.
“Yet these same children have a thirst for knowledge that, if quenched, opens a world of possibilities.”
On June 2009, The World is Just a Book Away opened its first 10 libraries, less than eight months after its official launch on October 16, 2008.
Collectively, these first 10 libraries provide more than 2,500 school children in grades 1 to 6 with access to more than 6,000 books, by introducing the idea of lending libraries for recreational reading.
All of its first 10 libraries are named after prominent people included in an anthology book that James is currently working on, with the latest library in Jimbaran named after Cher.
Other famous names used for the libraries were Lois and Buzz Aldrin, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Yunus, Shirin Ebadi, Miep Gies, Jane Goodall, Queen Noor, Fess Parker and Natasha Richardson.
This year, the group aims to give 9,000 children access to 20,000 books through the libraries.
