Despite having been opened for only two months, the Cikini Library in the Taman Ismail Marzuki compound in Central Jakarta has attracted residents from near and far to read, relax and play in its facilities.

The Cikini, Jakarta'€™s biggest city-owned library, is a four-story building sitting on a 2,000-square-meter plot of land. Aside from the spacious reading rooms, the library also boasts a 800-square-meter playground for children on the second floor.

The book collection, however, has yet to fill up the roomy building. The Cikini Library has only 20,000 copies of 4,000 titles of books and its bookshelves have many empty spots.

In comparison, the much smaller Rimba Baca in Cilandak, South Jakarta, has 5,000 books, while the Freedom Institute Library in Central Jakarta, also smaller in terms of space, has more than 10,000 books.

According to the head librarian, Abdul Rachman, the library, which drew inspiration from Thailand'€™s Knowledge Park, is divided into four sections: an exhibition gallery, a youth and adult library, a children'€™s library and a reference section.

Cikini'€™s collection is mostly in Indonesian, but some books are in braille and others in English.

Visitors can search for books using online public-access catalogue (OPAC) machines and get free wireless Internet, although there was some trouble with the Internet during a recent visit.

Unlike most libraries, which are quiet, the second floor of the building was noisy with kids. Some children were reading books and some were assisted by parents or librarians while playing with toys, such as puzzles, building blocks and educational wooden toys.

A visitor, Dini Dwi Sundari, 32, did not mind traveling from her house in Lubang Buaya, East Jakarta, to Cikini for a family outing. She came with her 4- and 5-year-old daughters and her husband.

'€œI know of this library from a friend who posted pictures on Facebook of her children playing here. I think it offers a good and educational environment for kids. I, meanwhile, can read books while watching them play,'€ she said.

Nadia Amira Diaz, 12, from Pondok Bambu, East Jakarta, was looking for some mystery novels on the bookshelves in the 1,500-square-meter young adult section on the first floor.

The section was large and well furnished. A number of visitors were reading books quietly at the tables, some on the sofa and the rest were sitting on the rug in the air-conditioned room.

However, the library, which will have a grand opening in August, has yet to see all its amenities up and running.

Weddy Venisia and her friend, for example, could not plug their laptops into the power slots because the power was not functioning at the reading tables, but only at the wall outlets. Also, '€œthe collection is not as complete as in the city-owned Kuningan library in South Jakarta,'€ the patrons said.

Head librarian Rachman said that the library is still working to improve its facilities, such as by adding more books to its collection, improving its OPAC system, finishing the making of its multimedia system that will enable the public to access e-books and e-journals and adding more librarians.

'€œWe now only have 19 librarians. We need 300 in total,'€ he told the Jakarta Post.

According to Rachman, two-year memberships can be obtained for free for Jakartans and non-Jakartans of any age who fulfill certain requirements.

The library currently opens only on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but Rachman said that it planned to open on the weekends too, and soon extend the hours to 8 p.m.

'€œThe library conducts story-telling performances in the children'€™s section every Friday at around 2 p.m. and occasional classes such as origami and drawing on the other days. The creations will be displayed in the gallery on the ground floor,'€ Rachman added. (rbk)

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President