The launch of a library located in a city museum and a series of library workshops will mark this year's World Book Day celebration, with the aim of making libraries and museums more interesting places to visit.

Located on the first floor of Bank Mandiri Museum in the city's Old Town, the library@batavia is slated to make its debut this Thursday, in conjunction with World Book Day.

"The new library is expected to be the center of community activities by providing vast information access in terms of education, culture and leisure," said Dessy Sekar Astina, from the Indonesian Reading Forum, the library founding group.

"The library and museum are often considered boring. By placing the new library in the museum, we hope to attract more people to both."

The library@batavia will be open to the public every Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. For the first three months, the library will provide free membership to several schools and the Friends of Mandiri Museum community.

"Membership will then be open to the public for an annual fee of Rp 50,000 *US$4.5*," Sekar said.

The library's collection includes more than 6,000 books, including fiction, non-fiction and reference, as well as periodicals. It will also provide a computer laboratory and a special children's corner.

The library is an expansion of public library Taman Bacaan Literasi in Duren Tiga, South Jakarta, which was established by the forum in 2007.

There are currently around 20 public libraries throughout the city.

The launch ceremony of library@batavia, which will be presided over by the research and technology minister, Kusmayanto Kadiman, is part of the World Book Day festival held from April 23 to May 17.

As the festival promotes library issues, there will be a series of library workshops for preschool, elementary and middle-school students.

In the workshops, students will learn about library skills, including searching book collections and mind-mapping.

Furthermore, this year's festival, themed "Reading for Love", will aim to improve family literacy by advising parents and children to spend 15 minutes reading together every day.

"We understand many Indonesian families, especially in the rural areas, have yet to make reading a priority. There are a lot of community libraries, but they still need more support. Therefore, we are campaigning for a love of reading, starting with families, the tiniest part of the community," Sekar said.

Other events in the festival include exhibitions, discussions, art and culture performances, and community gatherings.

There will also be the Book on the Street event on April 26, which will take place on Jl. Thamrin, in conjunction with the Car-Free Day. The event will feature performances by a marching band and storytellers.

Complete World Book Day festival schedule: http://worldbookdayindonesia.blogspot.com.

- JP/Desy Nurhayati

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