A Facebook post made by a researcher at LIPI’s Cultural and Society Study Center, Wahyudi Akmaliah, stated that approximately 32,000 thesis and dissertation papers had been removed from LIPI’s Scientific Documentation Center (PDDI-LIPI).

“Removing the dissertation and thesis collections potentially erases the function of the scientific documentation center,” Wahyudi said. He believes what the PDDI has done is attempted “bibliocide”, a term that he used to describe the elimination of literature.

“How can we help the public to develop their collective memories regarding our nation’s history if the references are being removed?” he added.

The post, which was uploaded on Monday, claimed that the collection was either thrown away or being sold to be recycled.

A written statement from LIPI received by The Jakarta Post clarifies that the institute was weeding out the collection to get rid of damaged publications as well as books that were no longer relevant to the nation’s current
situation.

According to PDDI-LIPI head Hendro Subagyo, his institute performed “weeding and stock-taking” every year to check the condition of publications so that they could determine which books to get rid of and which to keep.

“This weeding and stock-taking has nothing to do with the reorganization process,” Hendro stated in the written statement.

Hendro was referring to the organization restructuring that dozens of researchers have protested.

Hendro also said that people often mistook the weeding as an attempt to remove the dissertation and thesis collection by selling them to third parties.

Hendro also said the national journals service was available online and free of charge through the Indonesian scientific journals database (ISJD).

“Most international journals and magazines have been converted to digital form, while we keep the physical publication for local ones,” Hendro added.

LIPI’s urban researcher Henny Warsilah said she disagreed with the removal of the publications from the library’s collection.

“They [PDDI] should properly explain what weeding and stock-taking actually mean before delivering their statement,” she told the Post.

Henny explained that stock-taking meant that the library would match the existing collection with the information in the database.

“For example, in some cases, the library only has an exemplar of a certain title but the catalog wrote it down as two. So stock-taking is only performed to match the data, hence taking the publication out of the library is not necessary,” she said.

However, Henny said the library did not digitize all of the publications that had been taken out.

“This means that some of the publications were thrown away without a trace,” she added.

LIPI researchers have been in conflict with the institute’s head after Laksmana implemented a reorganization that the researchers condemned for being carried out arbitrarily, transferring some employees to other departments without prior assessment.

They later declared a vote of no confidence in Laksmana on Feb. 28 after the latter refused to abandon the restructuring, leading Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Mohamad Nasir to halt the process.

Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Syafruddin has decided to step in, saying the ministry would form a team to assist with mediation.

The team is to comprise representatives from the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry, the National Civil Service Agency and LIPI.

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