O

n a recent Sunday, in the corners of Suropati Park in Menteng, Central Jakarta, three groups of people could be seen laying banners on the ground and arranging books on top, along with putting up cardboard signs that read, “Free to read” and “Open for donation.”

The groups were literacy communities Kelompok Pecandu Buku (Book Addicts Group); Pusing, an abbreviation of Perpustakaan Keliling (Mobile Library), Deprok (Sitting on the floor) and Semut Hitam Bergerak (Moving Black Ants).

They regularly display their book collections and provide what they call “Perpustakaan Jalanan” (Street Library) at the park on weekends. The communities seek to encourage people to enjoy their leisure time at the park with books instead of gadgets.

However, even after severalhours had passed, only a few visitors had approached their stalls to look at the books, and only for a minute or so before turning away to leave.

“Sometimes youngsters come and pick up the books, but only take pictures without even opening them. Maybe they do it for Instagram posts,” Thoby Yeverson Alexander Ora, a member of Kelompok Pecandu Buku told The Jakarta Post.

The 22-year-old university student said he and members of other communities were concerned about the small amount of reading Indonesians did.

Last year, Central Connecticut State University in the United States conducted a study on reading behaviors that placed Indonesia second to last among 61 countries. The country sat in 60th place, above only Botswana and directly below Thailand, while Scandinavian countries like Finland and Norway were in the top five.

In 2012, a survey conducted by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also revealed that only one in 1,000 people in Indonesia had an interest in reading.

Those surveys, Thoby said, had inspired him and other literacy communities to start street libraries last year.

“They just need to sit back, relax and read. It doesn’t have to be around our stalls because we allow them to take the books anywhere in the park,” he said.

Thoby’s community opens its stall every Sunday from 12 p.m. to around 6 p.m. while Pusing Deprok opens its stall from 9 a.m. to around 6 p.m. and moves from one park to another in Greater Jakarta. Meanwhile, Semut Hitam Bergerak usually opens its stall on Saturday night.

On some occasions, people can find all three communities at Suropati Park at the same time, with book genre ranging from comics to philosophy.

Yazid Fahmi, 25, a member of Pusing Deprok, said that Suropati Park was the best park to operate a street library in Greater Jakarta.

“We once opened a stall at Kencana Park in Bogor but were forced to leave by some gangsters who thought we were selling books,” he said.

Initially, the community members contributed their own books to the library. However, as time went by, they started to receive book donations from other book enthusiasts.

Hary, 21, a member of Semut Hitam Bergerak, for example, said his community’s books mostly came from donations.

He said sometimes people would visit their stall with boxes of books, but most of the time, they picked the books up from the donors’ houses.

To prevent losing their books, the communities require people to give them a book as a guarantee if they want to take books home.

Hary said he hoped the library would help boost people’s interest in reading.

“It’s a baby step, but at least we’re promoting reading awareness,” he said. (ecn)